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Based on the Spiral of Silence theory, we posit that people perceive opinion climates on three different levels: the opinion climate (1) in society, (2) among their friends, and (3) in a specific situation. Based on a three-wave panel survey with two embedded experiments (N = 1,286), we analyze whether these perceived opinion climates influence the participation in online political discussions. Results show that perceptions of the opinion climate in society and among friends do not have an effect. Instead, the perceived situational climate of opinion matters: Individuals in balanced or congruent opinion environments engage more often than those in incongruent environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research work explores the theoretical underpinnings of Pakistani cyber laws and regulation pertaining to female bullying and considers their ramifications from the perspective associated with the Spiral of Silence theory. Laws of bullying for females are not specified yet however, there is no platform for female students where they can report and any law and regulations for female students except Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act, 2010. The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016 (PECA) has largely influenced the current legal environment, which provides a basis for comprehending the dynamics of online harassment. Inside this context, Section 20 of PECA-which makes cyber stalking illegal-is essential. Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann's Spiral of Silence theory offers a theoretical framework for understanding the social processes that persuade people to speak up or remain silent about their experiences. This idea sheds light on how the legal system might assist end the taboo around the harassment of women online in a setting of cyber bullying. The significance of taking the Spiral of Silence theory into account in the continuing development of legal remedies to cyber bullying of women is emphasized in this abstract. A survey will be created to collect personal data from respondents in order to analyses it. The preferred method is going to be inferential statistics and SPSS will be employed in this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent polling results suggest voters might be hesitant to express their voting intentions in presidential elections, despite the vibrant social media activity of candidate supporters. Using a national, representative survey, this study sought to determine if the spiral of silence influenced social media sharing, or if other factors encouraged the sharing of political endorsements. Based on the study findings, the best predictors of social media sharing intentions were opinion leadership and bridging social capital, with social capital exerting the greatest influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the barriers to the recognition of gender-based persecution as grounds for asylum. It focuses on Spain and examines the rulings of Spanish courts on applications based on various types of gender violence between 2009 and 2019 and looks at the theoretical propositions of "the politics of silence". The paper proposes that these barriers can be attributed to the interweaving of androcentric and colonial frameworks that produce arbitrary representations of non-European women and their cultures. It also highlights the paradoxical way authorities deploy culturalisation strategies around female genital mutilation and forced marriage, treating them as "exotic" violence, in contrast to the strategies of invisibilisation and silence used with other types of gender-based violence, such as "intimate violence". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have associated initiation practices, also known as hazing, with conformity, fear, apprehension, anxiety, submission, coercion, desire for group integration, and acceptance. Therefore, students undergo several types of influences or pressures. We argue that the social environment surrounding the hazing in Portuguese universities has all the conditions to raise a spiral of silence. We tested and confirmed Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann's Spiral of Silence theory. Our empirical analysis is based on questionnaires to a sample of 350 students from two Portuguese institutions. We addressed several additional relevant variables, namely ones derived from the Theory of Planned Behaviour, and Communication Apprehension. Our results show that students who are against hazing and perceive a majority opinion in favour are less likely to express their opinions. We were also able to identify some identifying features of the avant-gardes: the minority that challenges the status quo. These are students who show a willingness to communicate, pay attention to the media, and come from families with higher educational backgrounds. We argue that top-down public policies about hazing are likely to fail. It will be better, in a bottom-up approach, to identify and support the avant-gardes [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is known that Cem Karaca, one of the most important representatives of Anadolu Rock music, stands out with his leftist political stance as well as with his music. The trial process was initiated against him alleging that he made communist propaganda. He was recalled after the 1980 coup when he was abroad and he was denaturalized in 1983 because of his rejection. After the coup, he could return to Turkey in 1987 due to the political atmosphere of ANAP. This study aims to analyze the effect of the Spiral of Silence Theory on the Turkish press through the news about Karaca's denaturalization and return to Turkey. In this context, the news in Cumhuriyet newspaper was analyzed with the critical discourse analysis method. The findings show that although different attitudes are reflected in the news of Cumhuriyet regarding the denaturalization of Karaca as well as his return to Turkey, both are limited to official discourse. The fact that even the news in a newspaper claiming to be oppositional is compatible with the dominant opinion, both during the coup administration and during the ANAP period, clearly reveals the existence of the Spiral of Silence Theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The novel affordances and unique features on social media have transformed the way people assess public opinion. Drawing on the spiral of silence (SOS) theory, this study examines the roles that user-generated comments (UGCs) and aggregated user representations (AURs), represented by reaction emojis, play in shaping perceptions of the opinion climate. It also investigates how features on the platform trigger perceptions of source credibility to influence willingness to speak out. Results from a 3 (opinion cues: UGCs-only vs AURs-only vs UGCs and AURs) × 2 (opinion climate congruency: congruent vs incongruent) × 2 (source credibility: high vs low) between-subjects experimental design revealed that audiences perceived reaction emojis to reflect public opinion. Source credibility was found to affect willingness to speak out and moderate opinion climate congruency. The findings extend the SOS theory by highlighting the significant role that novel affordances have on SOS components operating online. Implications of the findings were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop a theoretical model to explain how public opinion can lead to the deinstitutionalization of a practice. Our model draws on the "spiral of silence" theory, which originated in the mass communication literature and suggests that social actors tend to support majority views. At the micro level, this behavior triggers a spiral of silence that leads to homogenous public opinion. We use analogical reasoning to posit the existence of a spiral of silence at the institutional field level. When public opinion becomes hostile to a particular practice, institutional fields tend to resist this external opposition. Insiders face the dilemma of whether to align with the majority view expressed by public opinion or to comply with the one expressed at the field level. After discussing the mechanisms by which insider voices mediate and diffuse the hostility of public opinion at the field level, we discuss the boundary conditions applicable to our analogy. The article advances the understanding of nested and connected climates of opinion and bridges the gap between insider- and outsider-driven deinstitutionalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-choice media environments allow people to cocoon themselves with like-minded messages (confirmation bias), which could shape both individual attitudes and perceived prevalence of opinions. This study builds on motivated cognition and spiral of silence theory to disentangle how browsing political messages (both selective exposure as viewing full articles and incidental exposure as encountering leads only) shapes perceived public opinion and subsequently attitudes. Participants (N = 115) browsed online articles on controversial topics; related attitudes and public opinion perceptions were captured before and after. Multi-level modeling demonstrated a confirmation bias. Both selective and incidental exposure affected attitudes per message stance, with stronger impacts for selective exposure. Opinion climate perceptions mediated selective exposure impacts on attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spiral of Silence Theory was primarily developed within context of traditional media in 1970s. By enjoying a long journey of appreciation and fulmination, the era of social media started to make weak its roots due to involvement of individuals in communication process and make them able to speak without fear and express their opinion with their experimental support. Latest literature has also discussed widely "Spiral of Silence Theory" in contexts of online media. Based on such research studies, current study examines application of Spiral of Silence Theory and illustrates its relevance in the formation of new theory named "Spiral of SocialMedia Theory". By reviewing existing literature, this article reveals how the social communication channels enable users to give opinionthat may affect the enthusiasm of users to articulate about notoriousissues in online context especially social media. By examining the existing literature, the researchers may investigate "Spiral of Silence Theory" with reference to online content and propose that new environment offered by online communication facilitates the readiness of persons to talk more freely, while seeming to decline the "fear of isolation", as a result of users' supposed empowerment to talk about any issue on the social media. Evidence from existing literature adds preciseatmosphere of opinion of online conversations. This evidence suggests formation the ground of new theory (Spiral of Social Media Theory). The idea of new theory can be observed in social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the effects of online anonymity and different sources of social influence on the Spiral of Silence phenomenon in online news discussions about abortion. The results (N = 339) substantiated that technical anonymity predicts one’s perceived anonymity, but only the latter significantly increases one’s willingness to post personal opinions in the comment sections. Perceived support from other commenters was also found to reduce the online Spiral of Silence phenomenon. With fear of isolation, moreover, the state-based approach is verified to be more robust than the trait-like approach, advancing Noelle-Neumann’s original conceptualization. Study findings thus offer support for a more comprehensive conceptualization of Spiral of Silence components operating in online contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural educators, leaders, communicators, and extension professionals are faced with the increasingly difficult task of sharing science-based information to a public that is exposed to an array of media options, which are not always factual. Additionally, issues related to agriculture and natural resources (ANR) have become increasingly complex, and people can elect to only read information or communication that supports their pre-existing views on a topic. The complexity of disseminating information in today's society has led to the proposal of a new theoretical model: The Decision-Making Model for ANR Science and Technology. This is a multi-facetted model utilizing the theoretical foundations from the Theory of Diffusion of Innovations, Theory of the Spiral of Silence, and the Elaboration Likelihood Model. In a world of echo chambers, this theory has the potential to break the cycle of decisions made with incomplete information and equip practitioners with the foundation needed to efficiently and effectively disseminate information through educational practice and informed communication efforts. An informed and aware public could make decisions about ANR science and technology with a more complete understanding of the issue, which would solve some of the wicked problems facing society today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports the results of a test of the Spiral of Silence Theory that was introduced by Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann. The real process of the spiral of silence assumes that people (in the putative position of a minority) do not express their opinion or join the opinion of the majority because they have a fear of isolation. Tamás Bodor has argued that the theory does not function in all tests when (1) the process is timelimited, meaning that we can observe a public debate of an actual problem only for a short time and with the condition that the public forms two opposing opinion camps and (2) the key dependent variable is measured in an inappropriate way (e.g. researchers interview participants using a questionnaire on the hypothetical willingness to speak out). The solutions used with our test were: (1) we used four controversial themes, resulting in a greater probability of finding the functional process of the increased silence of the minority, and (2) we measured the key dependent variable as speaking behaviour during the laboratory experiment. Two laboratory experiments were part of this research; the first contained 42 and the second contained 43 students from the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. The experiments had the same design: (1) measuring of attitudes through a questionnaire (phase 1); (2) discussion on an internet blog (an anonymous online environment); and (3) discussion in a focus group (an offline environment). The first half of the respondents discussed anonymously online (phase 2) and thereafter offline (phase 4), and the other half participated in the experiment in the reverse order of environments. We measured attitudes again in phase 3 and at the end of the experiment (phase 5). The article investigates whether participants with minority attitudes are more frequently silent and how this relationship is moderated by fear of isolation and by the communication environment. Our results prove that the probability a participant will speak her opinion rises in an anonymous online environment. The results support the Spiral of Silence Theory – participants expressing minority attitudes are more frequently silent, but only when they express higher fear of isolation. Participants expressing lower fear of isolation are not influenced by minority or majority attitudes regarding the speaking of their opinion. Finally, the main contribution of our paper is the experimental replication of results obtained through hypothetical measures.

The phenomena of general election in 2009 shows that political marketing is an important part of winning the competition. This marketing approach has been transparently used since 1999 and continued to 2004. However, its more intensive use could be seen in the last general election in 2009. It was probably the era of an image industry which force an individual and a party to construct their best image in mass media. The more democracy following the fall of New Order enables all political power to compete fairly. This condition is in line with the wind of press independence which grows as a developing industry. In relation to the general election, mass media can be synergetic with political agents or the candidates. For the media, politics is considered as a product or service which has a high economical value; and for the politicians, mass media is a means of political communication to raise their popularity

Using two-wave panel data from Hong Kong, this study examines the spiral of silence process on social media. It extends the theoretical framework by including both supporting and disagreeing opinion expression and examining not only expressive but also withdrawal behaviors on social media. This study also investigates the moderating roles of disagreement and publicness as two affordances on social media that influence the spiral of silence process. Results from the moderated mediation model with a panel lagged and autoregressive analysis suggest that fear of social isolation (FSI) has an indirect effect on discouraging disagreeing opinion expression but not supporting opinion expression and on encouraging withdrawal behaviors through enhancing willingness to self-censor (WTSC) on social media. This indirect effect is contingent on the levels of disagreement and publicness in one's network. Higher levels of disagreement and publicness promote the spiral of silence. Implications of the findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spiral of silence (SoS) framework elaborates the factors that determine whether individuals are willing to express their opinions in public. Although previous scholarship has examined differences in between face-to-face and computermediated communication, research studies have rarely tested how perceived affordances of the channel influence whether individuals express opinions or self-censor. In this study (N = 399), we examine several propositions of SoS within the context of discussing police discrimination on Facebook. To extend the theory's relevance to social networking sites, we examined how users' perceptions of network association, social presence, anonymity, and persistence related to opinion expression. Findings indicate support for some of the theory's original tenets, as well as the role of multiple perceived affordances in determining whether people will express an opinion to their online social network. We discuss the implications for measuring and understanding political expression and silencing on social media as well as offline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work proposes the expectation of sanctions as a promising construct to advance spiral of silence research in face-to-face and computer-mediated contexts. We argue that situational factors influence people’s expectations about how their social environment would punish them should they express their viewpoint in a hostile opinion climate. These expected sanctions are suggested to explain the variance in people’s willingness to express a minority opinion across different social situations. An experiment showed that the expectation of being personally attacked can explain why people are more willing to voice a deviant opinion in offline rather than online environments. Findings also revealed that in contemporary social networking websites, wherein users commonly face a personally relevant audience, people are prone to hold back their opinion as they expect losing control over the reactions of their audience. This research extends previous knowledge by presenting a more differentiated theoretical view of the fear of isolation and specifying its role in different situations of public deliberation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The key assumption of spiral of silence theory is that opinion climate perceptions affect political opinion expression. We meta-analyzed the strength of this relationship and clarified the impact of theoretically relevant moderators. Sixty-six studies collectively including more than 27,000 participants were located. We observed a significant positive relationship (r = .10; Zr = .10) between opinion climate and opinion expression. This relationship was not weaker in online as compared with offline opinion expression environments. Also, the relationship did not vary by the number of the targets of opinion expression, the opinion of the targets, the opinion climate characteristics, and the design, measurement, and sample characteristics. The largest silencing effect (r = .34), however, was observed when participants talk to their family, friends, or neighbors about obtrusive issues. Overall, our findings suggest that the relationship between opinion climate perception and political opinion expression is stronger and more robust than previously thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although research has tested the spiral of silence theory using a variety of issues, little attention is paid to how the nature of the issues affects the spiral of silence processes. This study adopts issue typologies provided by Yeric and Todd and recommended by Salmon and Glynn to test the theory using three issues: immigration (transitory), gay marriage (emerging), and abortion (enduring). Using a nationwide survey of Facebook users (N = 1,046), this study investigates how the nature of issues influences the dynamics of the spiral of silence processes. Results identify issue-specific differences, especially regarding the opinion congruency. Theoretical implications for future tests of the spiral of silence theory and public opinion research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most understudied aspects of the spiral of silence theory is the influence on opinion expression of different social structures anchored in geopolitical units, such as cities or states. This study evaluates political opinion expression after an election by relying on national survey data collected in Colombia (Latin America) and using multilevel analytic techniques to assess geopolitical and individual contexts of influence. Results provide evidence that a disagreeable national context—an election outcome contrary to one’s preference—matters in explaining citizens’ political expression. In addition, individual-level variables in the form of self-censorship were studied. Rather than an individual’s level of self-censorship contributing to expression inhibition, it appears that aggregate city levels of self-censorship affect the likelihood of an individual expressing his or her opinion after a presidential election. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature of digital media challenges the explanatory power of effects theories that rest on a transmission model of communication. As essentially linear conceptualizations reliant on identification and measurement of discrete message components, these twentieth-century theories are poorly suited to contemporary journalistic structures and forms. This article adds to the call for a more richly theorized concept of relationship effects suitable to an immersive, iterative, and interconnected environment of news producers and products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the effect of news sites' explicit online comment moderation policies on spiral of silence (SOS) outcome variables. It advances the methodological understanding of SOS research by comparing the traditional willingness-to-share variable to more direct measures of attitudes. The results of two studies show that a one-sided editorial and comments generally silenced the opposition, particularly when participants were asked to provide their own comment. This finding suggests that open-ended comments may best measure SOS effects. With the inclusion of explicit comment moderation, however, participants were less likely to agree with the editorial as evidenced by their closed-ended attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media's capacity for users to generate, comment on, and forward content (including mass media messages) to other users has created new forms of mass interpersonal communication. These systems render observable processes underlying the formation of opinion climates. Five attributes of contemporary electronic opinion environments can alter the way users gauge, form, and express opinions on topics of public interest: the juxtaposition of mass media and user-generated content, ideological homogeneity and heterogeneity of online networks, technical ease with which to express opinions, the reach of messages, and networked audiences. These attributes facilitate analysis of theoretical and empirical works from different scholarly traditions, suggesting lines of inquiry that can enrich the analysis of (public) opinion formation via current communication technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media technologies offer several features that allow users to monitor other people’s opinions on public issues. Initial research showed that user-generated content can shape recipients’ perceptions of the majority opinion on societal problems. Still, it remains largely unexplored under which circumstances people gauge other users’ opinions through social media and whether perceived opinion climates affect people’s opinions and communication behavior in these environments. Results of a two-session experiment revealed that people’s fear of isolation sharpens their attention toward user-generated comments on Facebook which, in turn, affect recipients’ public opinion perceptions. The latter influenced subjects’ opinions and their willingness to participate in social media discussions. These findings are discussed in light of the spiral of silence theory and the social projection hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article reports the results of a test of the Spiral of Silence Theory that was introduced by Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann. The real process of the spiral of silence assumes that people (in the putative position of a minority) do not express their opinion or join the opinion of the majority because they have a fear of isolation. Tamás Bodor has argued that the theory does not function in all tests when (1) the process is timelimited, meaning that we can observe a public debate of an actual problem only for a short time and with the condition that the public forms two opposing opinion camps and (2) the key dependent variable is measured in an inappropriate way (e.g. researchers interview participants using a questionnaire on the hypothetical willingness to speak out). The solutions used with our test were: (1) we used four controversial themes, resulting in a greater probability of finding the functional process of the increased silence of the minority, and (2) we measured the key dependent variable as speaking behaviour during the laboratory experiment. Two laboratory experiments were part of this research; the first contained 42 and the second contained 43 students from the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. The experiments had the same design: (1) measuring of attitudes through a questionnaire (phase 1); (2) discussion on an internet blog (an anonymous online environment); and (3) discussion in a focus group (an offline environment). The first half of the respondents discussed anonymously online (phase 2) and thereafter offline (phase 4), and the other half participated in the experiment in the reverse order of environments. We measured attitudes again in phase 3 and at the end of the experiment (phase 5). The article investigates whether participants with minority attitudes are more frequently silent and how this relationship is moderated by fear of isolation and by the communication environment. Our results prove that the probability a participant will speak her opinion rises in an anonymous online environment. The results support the Spiral of Silence Theory - participants expressing minority attitudes are more frequently silent, but only when they express higher fear of isolation. Participants expressing lower fear of isolation are not influenced by minority or majority attitudes regarding the speaking of their opinion. Finally, the main contribution of our paper is the experimental replication of results obtained through hypothetical measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question of whether Noelle-Neumann's (1974, 1991) spiral of silence theory still proves valid in computer-mediated communication settings has increasingly provoked the interest of scholars and experts on media theory. Therefore, this study attempts to examine the applicability of the spiral of silence theory on Weibo, using the issue of banning an online talk show broadcast on www.iqiyi.com in which some guests openly endorsed homosexuality as the context of study. Similar to numerous extant research studies, our study tested two traditional predictors of the spiral of silence theory, fear of isolation and opinion climate perception. As shown by the findings, perceived opinion congruency was positively correlated with individuals' willingness of expression, whereas fear of isolation was negatively associated, which was in consonance with the theory's hypothesis. However, one point worth noting is that under circumstances of communication over the Internet, fear of isolation was found to exist as a mediator affecting the relation between anonymity and public outspokenness. In other words, individuals, as long as they could conceal their personal information, would display intense desire to verbalize their stance on Weibo even though they perceived themselves as in the minority. Since disparity of social status could also be detected on Weibo, our study includes a new predictor, power distance, in the theoretical framework, and reveals that there is a negative correlation between power distance and individuals' willingness of expression. Overall, our findings demonstrate that the spiral of silence theory is not completely tenable in online environments, because the unique characteristics of the Internet may eliminate the effects of the spiral of silence exerted on individuals, making it harder to predict how public opinion will change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated how Facebook's spiral of silence influences political participation. For doing so, this study focused on the roles of politically expressive activities on Facebook and individuals' levels of partisan strength. An online survey ( N = 277) was conducted with Facebook users. Results showed that a perceived hostile opinion climate on Facebook was negatively associated with political expression on Facebook, which, in turn, was positively related with political participation. This indirect relationship was conditioned by the degree of Facebook users' partisan strength. Those with weak or moderate levels of partisan strength were less likely to express their minority views, which led to decrease their political participation in the real world. Such indirect relationship was not the case for those with high levels of partisan strength. Theoretical and political implications of these findings were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since Edward Snowden exposed the National Security Agency’s use of controversial online surveillance programs in 2013, there has been widespread speculation about the potentially deleterious effects of online government monitoring. This study explores how perceptions and justification of surveillance practices may create a chilling effect on democratic discourse by stifling the expression of minority political views. Using a spiral of silence theoretical framework, knowing one is subject to surveillance and accepting such surveillance as necessary act as moderating agents in the relationship between one’s perceived climate of opinion and willingness to voice opinions online. Theoretical and normative implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An experiment was conducted to examine the relationships between opinion climate, fear of isolation and outspokenness in the context of a discussion of a controversial social issue on a social networking site (SNS). Participants were asked to indicate their willingness to express opinions on the issue after being exposed to one of two treatment conditions: dominant opinion climate and non-dominant opinion climate. Opinion climate was found to significantly influence individuals' willingness to speak out. Participants in the non-dominant opinion climate condition reported greater outspokenness than participants in the dominant opinion climate condition. The main effect of fear of isolation, and the interaction effect of the fear of isolation and opinion climate were non-significant. Findings suggest that the spiral of silence may have a unique mechanism in discussions on SNS platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A positive bias of opinions has frequently been identified across online review websites, suggesting that the public is making decisions based on a limited range of opinions. While scholars often attribute this bias to social loafing or self-selection, this study investigates the positive bias from the perspective of opinion expression. Drawing from the spiral of silence theory, a qualitative analysis of discussion forums reveals that fear of isolation reduces the willingness of members to voice neutral and negative reviews. Additionally, communicative affordances of the interface were found to further suppress neutral and negative opinions. These results extend the spiral of silence theory into the context of non-anonymous multichannel communication platforms and indicate the need to consider the role of communicative affordances in online opinion expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This study presents an extended research model that combines SOS and IM theories. • Fear of negative evaluation showed a positive influence on SNS impression management. • SOS effect can be understood better by considering SNS impression management. Based on the spiral of silence (SOS) and impression management (IM) theories, this study suggested perceived opinion support, fear of negative evaluation, and social network service (SNS) impression management as motivational factors of SNS users' opinion expression. The empirical analysis results revealed that perceived opinion support had a negative effect on fear of negative evaluation and that fear of negative evaluation showed a negative influence on willingness to speak out. In contrast to the hypothesis presented in this study, fear of negative evaluation showed a positive influence on SNS impression management. Finally, SNS impression management had a positive influence on willingness to speak out. As a result, there was a competitive mediation, so further analysis revealed that SNS impression management acted as a suppression variable in the structural model. This study found a theoretical limitation that had been overlooked in SOS theory and suggested a new theoretical framework to reveal the process of opinion expression on social media using a theoretical combination with IM theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We test the Spiral of Silence theory about Internet use in Japanese Internet society. We looked at Twitter and analyzed whether the Spiral of Silence theory would hold for it. Twitter's speed and scope of information dissemination is fast and extremely wide ranging. For these reasons, Twitter is an appropriate field for analyzing the influences of the Internet on the formation of public opinion. By integrating social investigation and behavioral log analysis, we test a model that incorporates an individual's attitudes (measured via a questionnaire) and an individual's communication network structure and actual communication behavior (measured via behavior log analysis). The results from our analysis show a positive correlation between individuals' perception that their opinion represents the majority view and the number of times they have spoken out. Moreover, while homogeneity of opinions of a personal network on Twitter influenced speaking out by a majority group, homogeneity of opinions does not influence speaking out by a minority group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theory of the Spiral of Silence (Noelle-Neumann, 1984), explained why the view of a minority is not presented when the majority view dominates the public sphere. For years the theory of the spiral of silence was used to describe the isolation of minority opinions when seeking help from traditional media, which play a significant role in increasing the isolation. The fear of isolation makes many people afraid of exchanging their views face-to-face with others. The main fear comes from identifying the people who hold a minority opinion. However, with the proliferation of social networks people have moved online to exchange their views, whether they hold a minority or a majority opinion, as long as their identities are concealed. Although women are the majority population in many Arab societies, their voices are still considered a minority view. In addition to the effects described in the spiral of silence, there are other obstacles to self-expression. Religion, culture, tradition, and education may have a negative effect, preventing women's voice being made public. Social networks have helped to promote women's voices while removing offline obstacles. This paper uses the theory of the spiral of silence in relation to women's online political participation in Twitter, even though they may not be willing to share their opinions offline (face-to-face), to learn whether the theory is still useful as an account of online relationships. The results show that the spiral of silence does not explain the behavior of women, either face-to-face or online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to explore online social network exposure effects on predicting individual's willingness to self-censor political expression (WTSC) and political posting behaviors. The spiral of silence (SOS) theory is applied to the context of online social networks wherein three major network characteristics are highlighted: reduced privacy, integration of multiple social context/relationships, and increase in unanticipated exposure to different opinions. The discussion leads us to propose three possible network effects in terms of WTSC and posting behavior including 'relationship-specific fear of isolation', 'incongruence with dominant political orientation', and 'exposure to diverse opinions'. Results show that the exposure to diverse opinions is positively associated with WTSC, which in turn is associated with political posting behavior online. Interestingly, while fear of isolation from offline contacts increases WTSC, it has a positive association with actual posting behavior. We speculate to what extent the social conformity proposition of the SOS theory should persist online and call for further exploration of informational nfluence as conceptually distinct from normative influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time is of the utmost importance when designing studies to test the spiral of silence theory. The theory posits that individuals who feel they are in the majority become more dominant and louder over time, while the minority camp becomes increasingly silent. However, few studies have tested the dynamic nature of the theory. Therefore, the aims of this article are to revisit the role of time in spiral of silence research and to demonstrate how dynamic processes can be modeled with three-wave panel data. Using survey data on the topic of unemployment, the relationship between change in the opinion climate and change in opinion expression is estimated with a latent growth model. Findings confirm the dynamic processes predicted by the theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay explores the confluence of faith talk or spirituality, strong African American womanhood, and breast cancer culture in the U.S. using Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann's spiral of silence theory. Topics discussed include the breast cancer culture in the country and health, the mythology of the strong Black woman and health, and the backlash against the pink ribbon as a symbol of breast cancer survivorship.

A new model is formulated of the sociological effect of the spiral of silence, introduced by Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann in 1974. The probability that a new opinion is openly expressed decreases with the difference between this new opinion and the perceived opinion of the majority. We also assume that the system is open, i.e. some people enter and some leave during the process of the opinion formation. An influence of a leader is simulated by a comparison of two runs of the simulation, where the leader has different opinion in each run. The difference of the mean expressed opinions in these two runs persists long after the leader's leave. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advertising and public relations – the war of ideas – is increasingly being conducted on the Internet, rather than in “old media” of print, radio, and television. An important aspect of the war of ideas is the battle to control the perceptions of others' attitudes and opinions. These perceptions are important because opinions about opinions (meta-opinions) act as social norms: they encourage the expression of positions seen as popular and discourage the expression of positions seen as unpopular. Using this interpretation, this article describes recent examples of opinion management to illustrate how the Internet differs from older media both quantitatively (acceleration of dissemination) and qualitatively (lack of centralized editorial authority). As a result of these differences, smaller and less-centralized groups often have the advantage over states and corporations on the Internet. Thus, in the war of ideas between the US and jihadist groups such as ISIS, the conflict is indeed asymmetric but the US is arguably the weaker side and must understand the unique constraints of the new battlefield in order to succeed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Social networking sites can facilitate self-expression, but for some, that freedom is constrained. This study investigated factors that influence LGBT+ individuals' identity management and political expression on social media. We interviewed 52 participants aged 18 to 53 around the 2012 U.S. election. Using co-cultural theory, we investigated communicative practices employed by queer-identified individuals on Facebook. Participants whose LGBT+ identity was not known by the social network (i.e., those who were still in the closet) revealed a spiral of silence, wherein they were silenced by the perceived heteronormative majority. Participants whose identity was known (i.e., those who were out) revealed a spiral of silencing as they used the site's affordances to empower their vocal minority and silence the dominant group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study tests the spiral of silence theory under conditions of online communication. It is argued that a preference for user-generated content may result in different perceptions of the opinion climate than a preference for mass media. This may also affect willingness to speak out in public. This study tested the effects of selective exposure to information regarding climate change in Germany. The individual media diets were derived from online diaries and content analyses. The findings show no support for the spiral of silence theory. Individuals who see themselves in the minority were even more likely to express their opinions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to extend a traditional communication theory, spiral of silence, to explore the effects of user anonymity and member familiarity on opinion expression behaviour in a virtual environment. Design/methodology/approach -- A laboratory experiment method was used to manipulate user anonymity, member familiarity, and opinion congruity to measure the willingness to express opinions concerning controversial topics. Findings -- A total of 147 participants were recruited in the experiment. The results revealed that anonymous users in virtual communities and users in groups comprising familiar members are more willing to express inconsistent opinions than non-anonymous users and users in groups containing unfamiliar members, respectively. In addition, anonymous and non-anonymous users as well as users in groups comprising familiar members and those in groups containing unfamiliar members are equally willing to express consistent opinions. Originality/value -- This is the first study to verify the effect of user anonymity and member familiarity on the willingness to express opinions in online social communities. The findings have crucial implications regarding how governments and businesses can stimulate creativity and feedback through virtual communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]