Reading Response – Issues In Public Opinion: W. Russell Neuman’S “The Impact Of The New Media”

Reading Response – Issues in Public Opinion:
W. Russell Neuman’s “The Impact of the New Media”
R.W. Neuman’s article, “The Impact of the New Media,” represents a preliminary exploration ofpotential methodological frameworks by which the academic community can critically discuss the real significance of new media technologies associated with the Internet. This essay will briefly examine themain argument of Neuman’s article before proceeding to a critical discussion of some of the more important ideas and concerns raised by Neuman’s work. The thesis will be argued that Neuman’s approachto the new media is both coherent and well-argued, and that rigorous methodologies and empirical testing are critically essential to understanding the significance of the new media for society andpublic opinion research.
The opening sentence of Neuman’s article – “Everybody has a hypothesis about the impact of the new media” (Neuman 299) – presents the cautionary background against whichNeuman develops his main argument: the need for a sound methodological basis for understanding the impact of new media technologies. As Neuman notes, there is a tendency for journalists and socialcommentators today to “hyperventilate” about new media technologies, seeing in them variously as the salvation and/or the doom of modern society (Neuman 317, 299).

Building upon the research paradigmsof early sociology, and the mid-twentieth century sociological model/theory of the “mass society,” Neuman applies some of the concepts and methodological approaches of “mass society theory” to newmedia technologies (Neuman 304). Neuman gradually expands upon his main argument, contending that to understand the implications of new media technologies for public opinion research, it is important todistinguish between characteristics of Internet users, changing public behaviours values and economic conditions, and those impacts that are actually due to new media and Internet technologies...