On the island, the "world" was still at peace.
Lippmann begins with a story about a small, remote island in the ocean in . On this island lived a few Englishmen, Frenchmen, and Germans. Because no telegraph cables reached the island and the mail steamer only arrived every sixty days, news was incredibly slow to reach them. Public-Opinion-by Walter-Lippmann
Lippmann coined the modern use of the term "stereotype," describing them as mental shortcuts we use to simplify a complex world. We "define first and then see," rather than seeing the world as it truly is. On the island, the "world" was still at peace
For in the late summer of 1914, these people continued to live, work, and socialize together in peace. They shared meals, traded goods, and treated each other as friends. However, unknown to them, the great powers of Europe had already declared war. For those six weeks, while they acted as friends, they were technically enemies. The Lesson: The "Pseudo-Environment" Because no telegraph cables reached the island and
If you’re looking to understand Walter Lippmann’s landmark book Public Opinion (1922), the most helpful "story" is actually the opening anecdote he uses to explain his central theory: . The Story of the Island
He argued that because the "Great Society" is too complex for any one person to fully understand, elites and media must "manufacture consent" to guide public opinion.
Lippmann uses this story to illustrate that we do not react to the real world, but to a —a mental map of the world that we build from reports, stories, and pictures. The Reality: World War I had begun.