Social Networks: Challenge in Defining Public Opinion

Excitement of social groups to generalize a phenomenon until before the advent of the Internet was done in a unidirectional framework and through a pre-determined organization and the media were the main pillars of shaping the public opinion. But changes have been introduced in the definition of public opinion with the advent of social networks and usage of previous definitions has become obsolete. During the unidirectional era of the media, the public opinion had a clearer definition compared to today. With the emergence of glass window of McLuhan coming to a new definition for public opinion- as a phenomenon and a process today - has its own difficulties. The unidirectional, bidirectional and multidirectional difference is the axis of the challenge of this definition and that by passing through it, new frameworks can be found for this definition. This paper has tried to review public opinion definitions since its advent until now, examine the effects of Web 1 and social networks as Web 2 on these definitions and draw a perspective on the trend of this definition in developments of Web especially Web 3.