Week 5 – Communication Theory and Public Opinion

Week 5 – Communication Theory and Public Opinion

According to the text, “Aristotle said that persuasion takes three forms: logos, or an appeal to reason; pathos, or an appeal to emotions; and ethos, or an appeal based on personality or character.” This simple statement might be the most important of all statements regarding public opinion.

By definition, public opinion is what the public believes and if you are to change public opinion, you need to understand persuasion. By providing solid reasoning (logos), you can change opinion by appealing to a person’s reason and understanding about a topic.

By evoking emotion (pathos), you can change opinion by striking at the heart of someone’s feeling about a subject- I believe the morality of this can be in question sometimes, considering humans are known to have trouble applying reason over the emotions they are feeling at the time. Rallying people behind a cause due to intensity they are feeling temporarily seems like it could lead to a tricky situation if done wrong.

Then there is appealing to the personality or character of a person (ethos). To me, this seems to be a combination of both logos and pathos. If you are appealing to a person’s character, you are appealing to what makes up that character. Emotion certainly drives it, and with even the moderately educated, character involves reasoning and what a person believes in. In my opinion, applying to a person’s ethos has to be the most appropriate way to change public opinion.

Aristotle… fascinating stuff.