Silence Theory In The Movie 42

The movie ‘42’ is about baseball back in 1946. It is centered on African American baseball player Jackie Robinson and how his life changed when legendary manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Branch Rickey, signs him on to the team. By breaking the renowned color barrier of major league baseball, Robinson faces open discrimination from fellow players, coaches, baseball fans and the press.

Despite all the acts of discrimination, through the actions of the characters and the movie’s ending, majority of the baseball industry did not have negative feelings towards Robinson joining them. Even if they did, it was eventually overcome.

This essay will discuss how Mr Rickie utilized the agenda setting function of media to create a more positive reception

In the movie, many characters show discomfort at the harassment and abuse that Robinson was facing. Characters such as his fellow team players as well as the spectators were against the racist slurs that were thrown at Robinson but did not have the courage to speak up. This is attributed to the Spiral of Silence theory.

The Spiral of Silence theory was tested and developed by Noelle-Neumann over a period of time. The main assumptions of the theory are that individuals tend to evaluate the climate of opinions before choosing to express their opinions openly. This is driven by their fear of isolation that society threatens deviant individuals with.

Thus, individuals are led by their perception of the dominating or opposing opinions in their environments although it may not be congruent with reality. When people conceal their opposing opinions, this lets the dominant views gain more ground and the minority opinions become lesser and lesser. This is the spiraling effect. However, they might become more vocal when they feel like they are in the majority (McQuail

Pew Research Center conducted a survey of 1,801 adults on one divisive issue: Elden Snowden’s 2013 disclosure of the extensive government surveillance of American’s phone and email records.

A major insight from the survey’s findings is that people were more willing to share their views if they thought their audience agreed with them in both personal and online settings. For example, they were three times more likely to join a workplace conversation about the Snowden-NSA situation if they felt that their colleagues agreed with them (Hampton et al. 1).

In Singapore, there is an opinion that the mainstream media is repressed and controlled by the government hence the birth of alternative news sources such as All Singapore Stuff, The Online Citizen and mothership.sg. Professor Eugene Tan says that these sites “give a louder voice, particularly people who do not agree with the dominant political players”. He continues, “It’s the safety in numbers – that they are not alone and have like-minded people”