"It is not at all clear how much the media influences public opinion and how much public opinion influences the media"
About this Quote
Jackson’s line is a tidy jab at one of modern democracy’s favorite fairy tales: that media is the puppet-master and the public is the puppet. By refusing to award clear agency to either side, he points to a feedback loop that’s both mundane and politically explosive. The ambiguity is the point. If no one can say where influence starts, then no one can easily claim innocence.
As a public servant, Jackson is speaking from inside the machinery that’s constantly trying to “read” the public while also trying to shape it. That’s the subtext: governance now happens in a hall of mirrors where polling, headlines, and political messaging bounce off each other until cause and effect blur. Media outlets chase attention because attention pays; audiences consume stories that flatter their priors; politicians respond to the “public mood” they’re seeing on screens, then feed the same screens with performances designed to register as leadership. Everyone is reacting, and everyone is driving.
The quote also quietly undercuts the conspiratorial comfort of blaming “the media” for civic dysfunction. Jackson doesn’t deny media power; he reframes it as entanglement. That matters because the policy stakes are different: if the problem is domination, you regulate or shame the press; if the problem is reciprocity, you’re dealing with incentives, platforms, audience habits, and the political class’s dependence on mediated legitimacy.
It works rhetorically because it sounds modest - “not at all clear” - while landing as an indictment of a system where accountability dissolves into circular influence.
As a public servant, Jackson is speaking from inside the machinery that’s constantly trying to “read” the public while also trying to shape it. That’s the subtext: governance now happens in a hall of mirrors where polling, headlines, and political messaging bounce off each other until cause and effect blur. Media outlets chase attention because attention pays; audiences consume stories that flatter their priors; politicians respond to the “public mood” they’re seeing on screens, then feed the same screens with performances designed to register as leadership. Everyone is reacting, and everyone is driving.
The quote also quietly undercuts the conspiratorial comfort of blaming “the media” for civic dysfunction. Jackson doesn’t deny media power; he reframes it as entanglement. That matters because the policy stakes are different: if the problem is domination, you regulate or shame the press; if the problem is reciprocity, you’re dealing with incentives, platforms, audience habits, and the political class’s dependence on mediated legitimacy.
It works rhetorically because it sounds modest - “not at all clear” - while landing as an indictment of a system where accountability dissolves into circular influence.
Quote Details
| Topic | Reason & Logic |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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