According to Lord Bryce, three classes of persons have to do with the making of public opinion. They may be described as the thinkers, propagators and the mass of people.
Public Leaders and Thinkers.
They are the men who seriously occupy themselves with public affairs and devote their lives mostly, if not wholly, to the study and solution of public affairs and national problems. They are either professional politicians, legislators, journalists or are otherwise actively engaged in politics, or are private citizens who care enough for their duty as citizens to give constant attention to what passes in the political world. Their number is small which, is indeed, an exceedingly small percentage of the voting citizens. But their importance is great. It is they who make public opinion, as its thinkers and originators.
They are public leaders. They know the facts. They think out, marshal and set forth, by word of mouth or pen, the arguments meant to influence the public. They use the press, platform and other agencies of public opinion to communicate their views and opinions to others. In modern democracies, in general, and in countries like the U.S.A., in particular, these makers of public opinion are the powerful organised interests, institutions, and corporations who manufacture public opinion like any other commodity. As there are various kinds of leaders and thinkers, there is a variety of different and opposite opinions.
Propagators and Moulders of Public Opinion.
The second class consists of those who also take interest in politics. They read the daily newspapers and political literature; listen to public speeches and to the radio broadcasts and TV telecast, and give close and unremitting attention to public questions from day to day. They form judgment upon the facts and arguments presented to them. Their judgment corrects and modifies the views of the first class. Thus they become, though not the originators, but certainly the moulders and propagators of public opinion. Most of the persons of this class belong to a party, but they are generally not partisans.
They are ready to listen to the views and opinions of other parties and consider fairly both sides of the question. Owing to their impartiality and non-partisan spirit, they become the real makers of public opinion. The worth and value of public opinion really depends upon the honesty, public spirit, impartiality, political intelligence and sound judgment of this class of persons. The number and quality of this class decides the quality and effectiveness of public opinion. What they think and feel is the opinion of the nation as a whole. It is Public Opinion at its best. To this class belong the members and workers of the various parties, the pressure groups, and the lesser interests and institutions in the nation, and all those who are interested in politics.
Masses of People.
The third class includes all the remaining masses of people who are generally indifferent to public affairs, reading little and thinking less about them. So far as they have any opinion, they simply borrow or adopt it from the first two classes or from the place or social class to which they belong. Men of this type will now and then be attracted by the personality of a leader or fascinated by a movement. They will follow him or it, not because they understand his or its politics but because they like some of his or its qualities or because they are sentimentally attached to his personality or movement. This large group neither makes opinion as thinkers, nor helps to mould it as critics, but it swells its volume by its numbers. The actual size of this group varies from country to country, but it is everywhere very large. By far the largest majority of the people of a State belongs to this class. In a democracy, it is at least as large as the electorate.