Media and Public Opinion

Data analysis reveals that the sources of information on military security issues that the young elites mainly rely on are first and foremost television news programmes, followed very closely by newspapers and in third place, but lagging considerably behind, is the Internet. So far the information sources appear to be the same ones and to be equally important for the two groups studied, university students and cadets.However, sizeable gaps have to be registered in the opinions of respondents on the media in general, as, for instance, the assessment of the attitude displayed by the media toward the military, or their interest in defence-related issues, the judgment of the level of information on military issues.Other cultural differences arise dealing with the public opinion theme, as far as the armed forces’ public image is concerned, or on the evaluation of the officers’ professional training.After presenting main data on the theme, this chapter tries to discuss them and to reach some general conclusion.