ABSTRACT
The relationship between one’s perception of a social object and one’s attitude towards it is a complex one. In simplest terms, at least two sequences occur: one perceives and selects according to certain orientations already in existence and then, what is perceived is shaped and absorbed into more enduring clusters of attitudes. These processes, of course, merge into each other, but it is more the second one that this chapter is concerned with: how the images in the inventory were crystallized into more organized opinions and attitudes. These opinion and attitude themes correspond roughly to what Smelser calls generalized belief systems: the cognitive beliefs or delusions transmitted by the mass media and assimilated in terms of audience predispositions.1
