Perception is always explained as the way you see things and the way you interpret and understand the events that are happening around you. Your perception of a certain issue can be affected by various factors and usually by perceiving something you might end up coming up with certain assumptions that might not necessarily be true.
The many factors that contribute to one's perception of things would definitely be media, the various backgrounds the people are from or maybe even due to societal, cultural or religious aspects. When a person views an article or reads a certain piece of information, he/she is entitled to his own opinion and thus forms his own perception. This perception could however been wavered leading to them forming an assumption. Yet, however people do have to realise that an assumption might not be true which means they should not be stereotyping or assuming that the information they have read about if justifiable.
Take for example The Da Vinci Code Criticism issue which took place a few years back when the famous best-selling Dan Brown book was made into a blockbuster film and released to the public. While it was "just" a novel, the author claimed that the information contained in it was based on truth and historical facts, and for that reason many folks took it seriously while others, the more religious ones, criticized it alot. They totally discriminated the book and were against the author and his books and caused a controversy.
Many christians were greatly affected as they were offended by the book because many of the facts that the author was deadly serious about was somehow or rather against their own beliefs of how they religion originated and what they've known for so long about their own religion so when the author claimed that what they believed was untrue, they disagreed and were taken aback when the author refused to budge with his idea. This shows how a different perception about a certain topic could cause alot of tension between people and in this case, the different perception of a topic is seen thru a religious/cultural side as the people were offended since the information was going against what they have learned in their culture and belief and this causes controversy due to the fact that what they have learned before is now threatened.
So what is your take on this controversial topic? and is your comment based on your own perception or are you being rather general about it? do comment please! and before you do, take a look at these websites to see what the perceptions of others out there are.
http://www.bringyou.to/apologetics/DaVinciCode.htm
http://www.catholic.com/library/cracking_da_vinci_code.asp
