Public Opinion — Chapter V Speed, Words, and Clearness

1. 1. Telegraphy is expensive and facilities limited, so press service news is usually coded, with dispatches condensed to save words.
2. 2. A few words must often stand for a whole succession of acts, thoughts, feelings and consequences, as in a brief news item about Korean atrocities.
3. 3. Language is an imperfect vehicle of meanings; words evoke different images in different minds, and there is no certainty that the same word will call out the same idea in reader and reporter.
4. 4. The power to dissociate superficial analogies and appreciate differences is lucidity of mind, which varies greatly between individuals and groups.
5. 5. Under modern industrialism, thought occurs in a bath of noise, with city dwellers assaulted by incessant sound, which flattens discrimination and makes political judgment difficult.
6. 6. Emotional conflicts, measured in fifths of a second, derange the speed, accuracy, and intellectual quality of association, distorting public opinion.
7. 7. The mass of illiterate, feeble-minded, neurotic, undernourished, and frustrated individuals is considerable, and their low-quality attention depresses the quality of public opinion.
8. 8. The environment with which public opinions deal is refracted by censorship, privacy, social barriers, scanty attention, poverty of language, distraction, unconscious feelings, and monotony, thwarting clear perception.