Javno mnijenje i medijsko oblikovanje javnog mnijenja / Public Opinion and how Media Form it

In the past, the media played a significant role in allowing public opinion to express itself and become a public phenomenon, especially through radio and television. Nowadays, these relations are more complicated. The media have become more powerful and their role has become more important, including the Internet, while public opinion has made its presence and impact more visible, especially when it comes to polls. Relations and interactions have therefore become more complicated, even if more numerous, but they still hold the key to modern political communication where the three most important elements are political actors, the media, and public opinion. A general approach to the media and the Internet’s endless possibilities has allowed public opinion to be formed faster and easier, but at the same time, these are the factors that shape different features of public opinion, which vary from the regular ones. At the same time, these factors generate the expansion of public opinion in different directions and offer different possibilities for manipulation, propaganda, news distortion, free Internet access, and the expression of personal and subjective attitudes. These factors also pose a threat to maintaining the integrity of journalistic work, media ethics, and the free flow of authentic and objective news. The aforementioned factors leave colossal consequences on public opinion – its formation, growth, and expression. Increased individual and societal exposure to media content is a factor worth mentioning as well. The media and the public are interdependent - they complete each other and cannot operate or exist without each other.