Public opinion as a social phenomenon

Public Opinion is considered as a mass awareness phenomenon, social institution, and important factor of social development, which contains a powerful potential to influence the social behavior of large groups of people. The main approaches to defining public opinion are outlined and its structural and substantive, dynamic and functional components are analyzed. It has been established that public opinion is a product of mass consciousness, which represents the evaluative judgments of social subjects, which are influenced by worldview norms, ideas, values formed in public consciousness, as well as interests and needs developed in the process of mastering social life. As a result of the study it was determined that public opinion is a product of the mass consciousness, representing the value judgments of social subjects, which are influenced by ideological norms, ideas, values that have developed in the public consciousness, as well as the interests and needs developed in the process of social life. The main stages of formation and development of public opinion, which is formed during the movement of information in society, reflects the social practice of people and acts as a regulator of activity. It is substantiated that public opinion, subject to the awareness of the masses on a particular issue, can be an effective force, which affects all the processes of life of society. The development of public opinion is conditioned by the peculiarities of public consciousness and social existence of society at a particular stage of its development and transformation