AP Gov Chapter 6-7 Study Guide

political ideology

a coherent set of beliefs about politics, public policy, and public purpose, which helps give meaning to political events

civil disobedience

a form of political participation based on a conscious decision to break a law believed to be unjust and to suffer the consequences

protest

a form of political participation designed to achieve policy change through dramatic and unconventional tactics.

high-tech politics

a politics in which the behavior of citizens and policymakers and the political agenda itself are increasingly influenced by technology

sample

a relatively small proportion of people who are chosen in a survey so as to be representative of the whole

talking head

a shot of a person's face talking directly to a camera

random-digit dialing

a technique used by pollsters to place telephone calls randomly to both listed and unlisted numbers when conducting a survey

melting pot

a term often used to characterize the United States, with its history of immigration and mixing of cultures, ideas, and peoples

political participation

all the activities used by citizens to influence the selection of political leaders or the policies they pursue. The most common means of political participation in a democracy is voting; other means include protests and civil disobedience

census

an "actual enumeration" of the population, which the Constitution requires that the government conduct every 10 years/ is a valuable tool for understanding demographic changes

political culture

an overall set of values widely shared within a society

higher class

class that politically participates the most

media events

events that are purposely staged for the media and that are significant just because the media are there

factors of political socialization

families, media, schools, religion

chains

groups of newspapers published by media conglomerates and today accounting for over four-fifths of the nation's daily newspapers circulation

trial balloons

intentional news leaks for the purpose of assessing the political reaction

narrowcasting

media programming on cable TV or the internet that is focused on a particular interest and aimed at a particular audience, as opposed to broadcasting

press conferences

meetings of public officials with reporters

random sampling

most accurate form of determining public opinion

print media

newspapers and magazines, as compared with electronic media

policy entrepreneurs

people who invest their political "capital" in a particular issue; according to John Kingston, a policy entrepreneur "can be in or out of government, in elected or appointed positions, in interest groups or research organizations".

ways of finding out public opinion

polls, voting results, campaign attendance, political blogs

South and West

population shift

exit poll

public opinion surveys used by major media pollsters to predict electoral winners with speed and precision

sound bites

short video clips of approximately 10 seconds. Typically, they are all that is showed from a politician's speech on the nightly television news.

beats

specific locations from which news frequently emanates, such as Congress or the White House. Most top reporters work a particular beat, thereby becoming specialists in what goes on in that location.

electronic media

television, radio, and the internet, as compared with print media

mass media

television, radio, newspapers, magazines, the internet, and other means of popular communication

public opinion

the distribution of the population's beliefs about politics and policy issues

policy agenda

the issues that attract serious attention of public officials and other people actively involved in politics at the time

random sampling

the key technique employed by survey researchers, which operates on the principle that everyone should have an equal probability of being selected for the sample.

sampling error

the level of confidence in the findings of a public opinion poll. The more people interviewed, the more confident one can be of the results.

reapportionment

the process of reallocating seats in the House of Representatives every 10 years on the basis of the results of the census

political socialization

the process through which individuals in a society acquire political attitudes, views, and knowledge, based on inputs from family, schools, the media, and others

selective exposure

the process through which people choose to get the news from information sources that have viewpoints compatible with their own

gender gap

the regular pattern in which women are more likely to support Democratic candidates, in part because they tend to be less conservative than men and more likely to support spending on social services and to oppose higher levels of military spending

demography

the science of population changes

minority majority

the situation, likely beginning in the mid-twenty-first century, in which the non-Hispanic whites will represent a minority of the U.S. population and minority groups together will represent a majority

investigative journalism

the use of in-depth reporting to unearth scandals, scams, and schemes, at times putting reporters and adversarial relationships with political leaders

main purpose of the census

to determine the reapportionment of House seats

ways of political participation

voting, protesting, civil disobedience, petition, holding office, donating money, attendi party meetings