Public Opinion by Walter Lippmann

This is the first episode of Masters in Public Affairs.

We're starting with what might be the most important book ever written about how public opinion actually forms. Not how we wish it worked. Not the civics textbook version. How it actually works.

Walter Lippmann wrote Public Opinion in 1922—over a century ago. The technology has changed beyond recognition since then. But the mechanism he describes? It's the same now as it was then.

The core insight: People don't respond to reality. They respond to pictures of reality in their heads. Those pictures are constructed by intermediaries, filtered through stereotypes, and animated by identification. And the gap between those pictures and actual reality is where consequences live.

If you work in public affairs—government relations, communications, advocacy, stakeholder engagement—this book will change how you see your work.