Ryan Schroeder

7/25/2015

Communication 1050
Reel Paper

For this assignment the spiral of silence theory caught my eye. The Theory has been
the most intriguing to me since I have noticed it often even before reading about it.
While watching the movie Office Space by Mike Judge, I noticed this theory come in to
play and how it affected the character. The spiral of silence theory suggests that:

Society threatens deviant individual with isolation; fear of isolation is pervasive.

This fear of isolation causes individuals to try to assess the climate of opinion at
all times

Public behavior is affected by public opinion assessment.

The theory shows itself in the movie in one particular scene. The character Michael
Bolton, works at his office job. He is asked several times in the movie if he likes the
Singer songwriter by the same name. He continually implies that he does not care for the
artist. The company he works for (Initech) hires a consulting firm that looks for ways
that Initech can reduce operating costs. In the process everyone is required to meet with
the firm to interview for his own job. At the beginning of the interview the interviewers
read his name on a file discovering his name. The interviewer proceeds to tell Michael
how much he likes the artist. It eventually leads to the interviewer asking Michael which
song he likes the most. He realizes that he is in no position to explain how much he

despises the artist. He goes along with the question and answers that he likes all of his
work.
The theory was developed by Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann. Born in the suburbs of
Berlin in 1916, she went on to study philosophy, history and journalism in her home town
as well as Munich. In 1937 she became an exchange student at the University of
Missouri, learning from George Gallup. In 1940 she was awarded a doctorate for her
research on public opinion. I think that some of her influence for this theory came to her
while working for the Nazi Weekly. Finally in 1974 the spiral of silence theory was
conceptualized.
The films director Mike Judge wanted to show the monotonous day that can fill a
workday. As much time and effort that is put in to making movies even back in 1999, I
do not think that the spiral of silence theory.
I gained from learning about this theory while comparing it to the movie office
space. I think that our opinion can be good or bad jus like fire. If we express ourselves
and opinions in the appropriate places and times, It helps us to communicate who we
really are to those that are listening. If we are not careful about when and were we
express ourselves we can find ourselves in undesirable situations.
The Spiral of Silence theory assumes that those with a minority viewpoint will
remain silent about the issue. The character Michael Bolton chose not only to remain
silent about his hatred toward the artist Michael Bolton, but to go with the majoritys
opinion on the subject. The Character goes on to say why should I change hes the one
who sucks. I think this is important for us to remember two things about that statement.

The first is that we dont have to change our opinion to meet the expectation of others.
Secondly, others have the right to their own opinion.
Bibliography

West, Richard L., and Lynn H. Turner. Introducing Communication Theory:

Analysis and Application. 4th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2010. Print.
"Spiral of Silence." Mass Communication Theory. 8 Mar. 2012. Web. 30 July
2015.
The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media. Web. 30 July 2015.
Office Space. Twentieth Century Fox, 1999. Film.