"Spiral of silence" in election campaigns in post-communist society: The case of Belarus
Oleg Manaev
Belarusian State University
Natalie Manayeva and Dzmitry Yuran
University of Tennessee (Knoxville)
Theoretical framework
Individuals are pressured by others to conform to standards of dress, behaviour and attitudes in a wide range of circumstances, even when the pressure comes from outside social circles. German sociologist Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann took the idea of group pressure to conform and added another component: the influence of the media. Noelle-Neumann posited that public opinion is formed as individuals try to determine whether their opinions are in the majority...