[Commlist] CFP: Lippmann's Public Opinion at 100 - International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics

Call for Papers
Lippmann’s ‘Public Opinion’ at 100: The yesterday and tomorrow of 
post-truth, disinformation and fake news

Guest Editor: Frank Durham (The University of Iowa)

Disillusioned with his experience as propagandist for the Wilson 
government during the First World War, the then journalist Walter 
Lippmann shut himself in his Summer cottage to write a book about the 
limits of popular self-government in contemporary complex societies. 
Given that journalism was unable to provide an accurate and 
comprehensive picture of events to a mostly inattentive audience, it was 
time to acknowledge that a group of insiders should pre-cook the choices 
for the outsiders at large.

Published in 1922, Public Opinion would become an instant success. The 
‘manufacture of consent’ enabled by propaganda and the mass media, the 
‘stereotypes’ we use as cognitive short-cuts to make decisions about 
politics, the ‘pseudo-environment’ that we build with the ‘pictures in 
our heads’, coming from the vicarious experience of foreign events 
provided by the news media… These ideas espoused by Lippmann in the book 
served to remind us that we live in Plato’s cave, doomed to passively 
stare at the shadows that we take for reality, and therefore incapable 
of governing ourselves as fully-competent citizens.

Historian Ronald Steel, the definitive biographer of Lippmann, noted 
that the legendary journalist evolved from a mechanic concern (how to 
report events objectively, de-contaminated of bias and prejudice) to an 
organic conundrum: What if people do not want to know the truth? This 
evolution, traceable from Liberty and the News (1920) to The Phantom 
Public (1925), the prequel and sequel, respectively, of Public Opinion, 
still puzzles us today: What if all the fact-checking is useless? What 
if democracy cannot escape from the limits of confirmation bias and 
selective exposure? As Steel recalls, Lippmann was well ahead of his 
time in advancing some of the most recent findings in political 
psychology: facts won’t change our minds.

The International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics would like to 
invite submissions for a special issue celebrating the centennial of the 
publication of Lippmann’s landmark book, Public Opinion. The topics 
likely to be covered will include:

•    The reception and influence of Public Opinion, both in the USA and 
internationally.
•    Current research addressing Lippmann’s original concerns: distorted 
reporting and the distorted perception of public affairs.
•    The connection of Lippmann’s early insights with today’s phenomena 
of affective polarization, self-exposure, echo-chambers and post-truth 
politics.
•    Accuracy in reporting, fact-checking inside and outside news 
organizations.
•    Pitfalls in the coverage of international crises, echoing 
Lippmann’s and Mertz’s essay on the reporting of the Russian Revolution 
by the New York Times in A test of the news (1920).
•    The professionalization of journalism: education, trade 
associations and ethical codes.
•    The professional politician in the age of populism.
•    The role of experts in government: scientific management, 
technocracy and intelligence offices.

Submissions will be considered in a two-step fashion: first, interested 
authors should submit an abstract by December 10, 2021. Those authors 
whose abstracts are deemed appropriate for the special issue will be 
notified by the end of January 2022 and will be invited to submit a full 
paper by July 31, 2022.

The titles and abstracts of the proposed papers may be sent to 
francisco.seoane@uc3m, and should include title, author(s) institutional 
affiliantion(s), and a 300-word summary. Please, state in the subject of 
your email ‘Lippmann special issue’.

For more information about the International Journal of Media & Cultural 
Politics, please visit the website:
https://www.intellectbooks.com/international-journal-of-media-cultural-politics

For a PDF version of this call, please visit the link:
https://www.intellectbooks.com/asset/60816/1/MCP_CfP_10.2021.pdf

SUBMISSION TIMELINE:
Abstract submission deadline: December 10, 2021
Notification on acceptance: January 31, 2022
Article submission deadline: July 31, 2022

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