The Spiral of Silence Formation of public opinion History and Orientation Neumann (1974)introduced the "spiral of silence"as an attempt to explain in part how public opinion is formed She wondered why the Germans supported wrong political positions that led to national defeat,humiliation and ruin in the1930s-1940s. Noelle-Neumann argues that three characteristics of mass communication:its cumulation,ubiquity and consonance. 多 Cumulation refers to the buildup of certain themes or messages over time. Ubiquity refers to the widespread presence of the mass media. Consonance refers to the unified pictures of an event or issue shared by different mediaThe Spiral of Silence Formation of public opinion History and Orientation  Neumann (1974) introduced the “spiral of silence” as an attempt to explain in part how public opinion is formed. She wondered why the Germans supported wrong political positions that led to national defeat, humiliation and ruin in the 1930s-1940s.  Noelle-Neumann argues that three characteristics of mass communication: its cumulation, ubiquity and consonance.  Cumulation refers to the buildup of certain themes or messages over time.  Ubiquity refers to the widespread presence of the mass media.  Consonance refers to the unified pictures of an event or issue shared by different media