Politics and the media Test Three

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What is driving negativity in the media?

economic structure of the media. Public responds well to negative political news coverage.

"Association"

"Association" refers to efforts to connect a candidate to another person or an idea. This can be positive (such as a candidate linking himself or herself to a celebrity) or negative (such as Clinton's 1996 ads in which he repeatedly linked Bob Dole to Newt Gingrich). The same can be done with issues, such as Republican efforts to link a candidate such as Obama to "liberal" ideas, such as high taxes and high government spending.

"Demonization

"Demonization" is the process of trying to associate a candidate with really negative ideas or people. For example, one of the most famous of these is the "daisy" ad from 1964, in which the Johnson campaign was trying to associate Goldwater with the worst possible idea, nuclear holocaust. In 1996, Bob Dole tried to demonize Bill Clinton for his loose morals, permissive ideas about drugs, etc. (see, for example, the ad "Too Late" at livingroomcandidate.org). In 2004, the Bush campaign got very demagogic with its ads featuring images of demonic figures like Osama bin Laden (see, for example, "Finish It," which features images of the 9-11 hijackers and bin Laden).

Patterson asks, why did the press become journalist-centered and strategy-centered?

"Part of the answer lies in the nature of the modern campaign. Strategy became more important as political parties carried less of the burden of electioneering and the candidates assumed more of it." Changes in journalism: Television greatly increased the number of reporters whose names were widely known to the public. Journalism became a prestigious calling. It was one thing for faceless journalists to defer to politicians, it was another for celebrity journalists to do so. They became more assertive. The reputation of journalists was further boosted by the breaking of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate scandals.

In a democratic polity, politically useful communications are those that shape:

(1) the conditions of one's everyday life; (2) the lives of fellow community members; and (3) the norms and structures of power that influence those relationships."(26)

Briefly explain each of the six production elements involved in putting together a campaign commercial.

(a) Visuals—film or graphic imagery—are the primary means of capturing attention and conveying messages. (b) Visual texts are print messages that appear on screen to reinforce the message. (c) The voice-over is the script read by an announcer that ties the visual elements together. (d) Next are the other sounds in the commercial—music and sound effects—which help create the mood. (e) Editing determines how the images are connected to one another. A jumpy, frenetic pace is usually chosen for a negative ad, while a smoother, more gentle pace is chosen for a positive ad. (f) Color also affects the tone. Rich colors send a positive message, while black and white has negative connotations.

Influencing polls

. Rather than trying to measure public opinion, these groups are trying to influence it. In such situations, survey takers design their polls to yield desired results. This can be done in a number of ways: by asking leading questions (questions designed to influence people to give a specific answer), by asking misleading questions, by taking an unscientific sample, and so forth. In many cases, the poll itself is secondary to the real aim of the group, which is to raise money to support its objectives.

In general, there are two standard ways to think of the politics of Hollywood:

1) people in the industry have political points of view they want to promote. These could be actors, producers, writers, studio executives, etc.; 2) the movie industry, as an industry, is interested in the policies passed by state and federal governments in terms of how those policies affect the movie industry.

7. In general, there are several political functions of the Internet for politicians and citizens. Briefly explain two of these. (2 points)

1. They provide access to news and political information that was previously less accessible. 2. They create channels of communication between elected officials and citizens, interest groups and citizens, and citizens with citizens. 3. They provide forums for political discussion. 4. They offer politicians another chance to gauge public opinion because it lets citizens offer immediate reactions to events.

In general, the Internet (and all of its accompanying social media platforms) serve several political functions:

Ads

A single ad can have very different consequences depending on the manner in which a candidate's opponent responds, the way journalists report on the ad, the number of times the ad is broadcast, the times of day it is broadcast, or the predispositions of the viewer. Ads can't be explored in isolation from these factors. In other words, the study of political ads is a very fuzzy science. However, some interesting work has been done in this area.

4. What is a population? What is a sample? Why should a sample be both random and representative? (2 points)

A population is the group of people you want to study. This could be divided by age or type. A sample is a group that is drawn from that population. Random means it is completely by chance. This means everyone has an equal chance of being chosen. Representative means that the sample looks like a mini version of the population (Commentary).

What is a population? What is a sample? Why should a sample be both random and representative?

A population is the group you are interested in studying, such as all registered voters or everyone who owns a car. A sample is a group of people drawn from the population for study purposes. Random means that everyone in the population you are sampling has an equal chance of being sampled. Representative means that the sample looks like a miniversion of the population—that is, it has the same percentages of men and women, whites and blacks, etc.

telescoping

A related phenomenon is called telescoping: if I ask you how many times a week you read the newspaper, you might say five or six. If I then ask you whether you read the paper yesterday, you might say no. If I keep asking whether you read it the day before that or the day before that, it might turn out that you haven't read a paper in some time, which throws your answer to the first question into doubt.

Cluster and Multistage Sampling

A third kind of sampling relies as much on geography as on demographic characteristics. In cluster sampling, multiple interviews are taken within the same geographic area, which is typically a neighborhood. The advantage of this kind of sampling is that it is more economical for the researcher. Cluster samples are often part of a multistage sampling plan that first samples geographic areas, not individuals. Once a set of locations is chosen, people are chosen by a set of demographic criteria. In the location chosen by the sampling technique, the surveyor asks to speak to someone of a certain age, gender, etc., at each randomly selected house. This is the method of sampling used in exit polls, a specialized kind of poll taken on Election Day to try to predict who will win an election. The people conducting these polls first draw a sample of all the election precincts and then send survey takers to these selected precincts with quotas of different demographic groups. The survey takers talk to a certain number of men, women, people of different ethnicities, people of different ages, and so on as they come out of the polling place. For a number of reasons, exit polls have proven difficult to conduct accurately in recent elections. In the 2000 and 2004 elections, exit polls early in the day predicted fairly large victories by the Democratic candidates when, in fact, George W. Bush ended up winning in most of the areas, such as Ohio and Florida, where the exit polls had predicted otherwise. This was due in part to a larger sampling error than the researchers anticipated.

What type of candidate has been eliminated in the TV age? Examples? Which is more likely to be recruited? Examples? 313-314

Abraham Lincoln's face might have not passed. Truman wouldn't have passed. FDR in a wheelchair not passed. Ronald Reagan recruited. They were good with the television. Obama as well. Good pictures.

Need difference between those two authors... 6. In their landmark study, Patterson and McClure came to different conclusions about the impact of television news media's coverage of political campaigns and the impact of campaign advertisements. What were the findings with regard to each of these? (2 points)

An early scholarly study of the impact of television ads was part of a larger study on the impact of television on political campaigns by Patterson and McClure. Where Patterson and McClure were less impressed with television's power was in the coverage of issues, concluding that television news media outlets disdain issues and focus only on the campaign as strategy and sporting event. They found that, "The only noticeable effect of network campaign news is an increased tendency among voters to view politics in the same trivial terms that the newscasts depict it. Regular viewers of network news are likely to describe an election campaign as a lot of nonsense rather than a choice between fundamental issues."(9) However, when it came to television ads, they were more accepting of an impact. They wrote that campaign advertisements were an effective tool for educating voters, concluding, "But people do come to understand better where the candidates stand on election issues from watching televised political commercials. Although commercials are surely full of their own nonsense, blatant exaggerations, and superficial symbolism, presidential candidates do make heavy use of hard issue information in their advertising appeals."(10)

number portability

Another problem with cell phones is number portability, meaning that area codes do not represent geographic areas the way they used to. As we have come to rely more and more heavily on cell phones, the law has changed to allow us to keep our old phone numbers when we move from place to place.

Why did the press become journalist and candidate centered?

As parties became weaker and journalism became more prestigious as a profession, journalists were no longer willing to be faceless reporters of campaigns. They assert themselves more and have a different view of their role in the process.

Attack ads

Attack ads appeal to the fears and emotions of voters and have stretched the limits of what is acceptable in campaigns. As we will discuss in the next lesson, these ads make their arguments by combining visual images with carefully scripted audio tracks. The images are designed to stir certain reactions among viewers, and the narration, without really explaining why, leaves the impression that a particular candidate is responsible for what is pictured. John Geer. In his book, In Defense of Negativity, Geer argues that negative ads have an educational benefit that is good for campaigns, candidates, and voters. He argues that it is good for candidates to raise questions about each other and that negative ads tend to focus on important issues in the campaign. In response to what he saw as too much complaining in the news media about negative advertising during the 2008 campaign, Geer wrote this piece for Politico, making the case that "Negative ads aren't all bad"external site

Attitudes

Attitudes are our likes and dislikes. Beliefs are our ideas about how the world really is

Why was The Birth of a Nation controversial?

Because it portrayed the Southern story as one of whites being oppressed, it glorified the Ku Klux Klan as a righteous organization, and it featured on-screen oppression of African Americans. It engendered protests nationwide by groups representing African Americans, such as the NAACP. It even involved the White House after the movie was screened there for Woodrow Wilson.

Why was The Birth of a Nation controversial? `

According to the Graber book, there are three major consequences of media-dominated politics for campaigns. In a sentence or two each, explain two of these consequences.

Because of television, journalists could choose who got the most attention and the issues that are being talked about. The media had the menu and the American people chose from it. The media will predict winners and tear people's reputations apart little by little (Media as Kingmakers, page 311). A candidate now tries to look impressive and perform in front of the camera. They need to look good to win over the American people. (Television-Age recruits). The campaigns are now focused on how the media will cover them because the media affects how someone is portrayed. It may take away from the information the people need to hear (Media campaigning strategies).

national political conventions

By the 1990s, however, the conventions were no longer as interesting to the public, and the networks began to pare down their coverage to an hour or two a night. The networks came to regard the conventions as unnewsworthy and as mere attempts by the parties to get free advertising time. The cable news networks continued to offer more extensive coverage, but it tended to be dominated by talking heads and experts rather than the proceedings in the convention hall.

Candidates who exceed, fall short of expectations 311

Candidates who exceed expectations are winners. And candidates who fall short are losers.

Code words

Code words are powerful because they allow voters to associate their own messages with them. For example, one voter might associate "liberal" with fiscally irresponsible, while to another it might mean morally lax. Similarly, one voter might associate "conservative" with the religious right, while another might associate it with big business. This allows candidates to send powerful messages to various people in only a few seconds.

"Colbert Bump."

Colbert asserts that everyone appearing on his show is helped in some way by that appearance. For members of Congress and congressional candidates, the bump might be an improvement in the polls and/or an improvement in fund-raising. Fowler examined the appearance of members and candidates and found that Democrats definitely did benefit, while Republicans were actually hurt by their appearances. "Democrats benefit from a one-third increase in contributions yielding two-fifths more money over a thirty-day period. In comparison, contributions to Republicans stay flat or even decline."(20)

Norman Corwin

Corwin's scripts were prized by the most famous actors, who would appear in them for very little money or for free. Corwin's most famous radio drama is called "On a Note of Triumph" and it played on the day that victory in Europe was declared in World War II. It played again on the day that victory in the Pacific was declared. This drama is regarded as the most listened-to radio drama in the history of radio in the United States. To listen to a story about the impact of this program, and for links to the full program, follow this link to National Public Radio:

Why coverage and polls move in tandem

Coverage can be shaped to destroy candidacies. People are forced out of the campaign by widely publicized charges that his speeches contained plagiarized quotations from other political leaders. Then Obama, 20 years later, was able to run.

1. According to Darrell M. West, there are four principles on which ads in political campaigns rely. Briefly list and explain these four principles. (4 points)

He says there are principles of stereotyping, association, demonization and code words. Stereotyping is when reporters use common beliefs of republicans and democrats to assume things. Association is trying to positively associate someone or something with someone. Demonization is trying to associate an opponent with something in a negative way. Code words are easy to remember phrases that will help or hurt an opponent (How ads are put together).

Speculation as self-fulfilling prophecy 311

Designated winners gain support and losers are abandoned.

Formerly un presidential campaign media now common. Examples 316

Entertainment shows. Ross Perot started the pattern. By 2000 it seemed like all candidates needed to be interviewed by the national press.

flawed question one

Example 1: A poll conducted by the American Foundation for AIDS Research in 1984 contained the following question: "The AIDS epidemic is a national emergency. It has already claimed over 180,000 lives in the U.S. alone. Over one and a half million Americans now carry the AIDS virus. Do you think the majority of Americans realize how widespread this tragedy has become, and that the worst is still ahead?" This is a compound question. It mentions two topics and asks for just one answer. It is impossible to know for sure to which part of the question people are responding.

flawed question two

Example 2: Questions are flawed if they provide false or misleading information in order to influence answers. Here's an example from the 1982 Democratic primary for governor in Ohio. The three candidates were Richard Celeste, who eventually won; William Brown, the state attorney general; and Jerry Springer, the former mayor of Cincinnati. During the campaign, Brown conducted a poll that included the following question: "As you may know, in 1974, Jerry Springer, who had gotten married six months earlier, was arrested on a morals charge with three women in a hotel room. He also used a bad check to pay for the women's services, and subsequently resigned as mayor of his city. Does this make you much more likely, somewhat more likely, somewhat less likely, or much less likely to support Jerry Springer for governor this year?" The question was factually inaccurate in some of the details and was a blatant effort to feed respondents information meant to generate a negative response. Such polls are sometimes called push polls because they are designed to "push" people to think or answer in a certain way.

flawed question three

Example 3: Two wordings of what is theoretically the same question can get very different results. In one poll from 2000, there were two versions of a question about the surplus. The first version read, "Should the money be used for a tax cut, or should it be used to fund new government programs?" The second version read, "Should the money be used for a tax cut, or should it be spent on programs for education, the environment, health care, crime-fighting, and military defense?" In the first case, 60 percent of respondents favored a tax cut, and 25 percent wanted more spending. In the second case, 22 percent favored a tax cut, and 69 percent favored the new programs. In a related example, Version A of a question read "Would you say that traffic contributes more or less to air pollution than industry?" and Version B read "Would you say that industry contributes more or less to air pollution than traffic?" In the first case, 45 percent of respondents said traffic contributes more, and 32 percent said industry contributes more. In the second case, 24 percent said traffic contributes more, and 57 percent said industry contributes more.

flawed question four

Example 4: Sometimes, just one word can make a huge difference. In 1995, The New York Times published a poll showing that 67 percent of Americans preferred not to cut Medicare in order to balance the budget. However, a Newsweek poll around the same time asked Americans whether they favored limits on Medicare's growth to help balance the budget and found that 41 percent of Americans did favor limits. The focus on limits versus cuts made a significant difference in peoples' "opinions" about an important public policy debate.

Candidates have become increasingly reliant on appearances on talk shows and other venues where they don't interact directly with journalists. Give some examples of this behavior. Why do they behave this way?

Examples include appearances of shows such as The Late Show with David Letterman, The View, and The Tonight Show. They like to appear on these shows because it allows them to avoid journalists. This gives them more control over the messages of their campaigns. Talk show hosts tend to be friendlier and ask fewer difficult questions.

celebrity officeholders

Finally, there are celebrities who decide to run for office and become celebrity officeholders. Perhaps the biggest celebrity to win an election in America is Arnold Schwarzenegger, who served as the governor of California from 2003 through the beginning of 2011, but he is far from the only one.

Benefit to internet

First, it offers a less expensive way than television for advertisers to distribute their messages and a relatively risk-free way for them to test ads. One ad might resonate particularly well on the Internet while others fall flat. That tells a candidate which ad to spend his or her money on by running it on television. Second, candidates can gather far more information about the people who see their ads online than they can gather about people seeing their ads on television. Technology allows advertisers to track which websites people go to, how long they stay there, and whether they download what they see. It also allows them to collect demographic (relating to people's personal characteristics, such as age, income, and level of education) and geographic information about viewers so they can learn which kinds of messages resonate with different groups of voters. Third, advertisers can take the information they've collected and send people messages specifically tailored to their demographic. A fourth benefit of the Internet is that people forward the ads they like to friends and family. The advertiser has its ad seen by more people and can gather demographic information about those new people. Through this networking among friends, there is also the possibility that the ad will reach, and have an impact on, people that would otherwise never have bothered to look at a political ad on the Internet or on television. In this way, perhaps, the Internet will expand the number of people with an interest in politics.

invisible primary

For many presidential elections, the year that precedes a campaign year was sometimes referred to as the invisible primary. Now, the length of the invisible primary is much more than a year before the election year. Though no votes are cast, such factors as polls, news coverage, and fund-raising can be significant in positioning candidates for the actual primaries. A candidate who raises a lot of money is reported as a front-runner, while those who raise less are portrayed as being finished before they even get started. The media devote considerable attention to coverage and analysis of the strategies of the various campaigns, even at these early stages. For the news media, campaigns have become a kind of sporting event.

In 1976, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter had specific goals to accomplish with their ads. What were they?

Ford had to present himself as presidential and explain his decisions. Carter had to tell Americans who he was because he was the first candidate to become his party's nominee in the new primary system.

vicious cycle developing

We can see a vicious cycle developing: as candidates become more aware of the ravenous appetite of media outlets, they become more eager to grab the attention of those outlets.

Free media

Free media refers to news reports that are not billed to candidates. Ads that are discussed in the free media have two advantages. First, viewers have traditionally trusted the news media—at least in comparison with paid ads—for fairness and objectivity. The high credibility of the media gives ads aired during the news an important advantage over those seen as paid ads. Second, free airtime means that larger audiences will see the ad. And now, this kind of rebroadcasting isn't limited to television. Now ads become viral online, as people post them to social media, e-mail links to each other, and make posts to sites such as YouTube. The effect described by Roger Ailes is especially true for those who are least interested in politics and the most volatile in their opinions.

What does Patterson mean when he argues that campaigns should be organized for the press, not by the press?

He means that campaigns should be events which happen and are reported on by the news media. They should not be structured to please the press, and their outcomes should not be determined by how the press covers them.

9. What are interviewer effects? Give an example. (2 points)

How the interviewer acts can affect the answers someone gives. This is in person and over the phone. People need to be trained to be consistent with each answer (Interviewer Effects).

Howard Dean

Howard Dean set the bar even higher. Dean was the Democratic governor of Vermont and unknown to most of the country, just like Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton before him. However, his campaign manager, Joe Trippi, developed a sophisticated strategy for reaching young voters who liked to interact on the Internet. Two features of the strategy were a web log, or "blog," that allowed supporters to network with one another and with the campaign and a mechanism that allowed supporters to donate money to the campaign over the Internet. Most donations were fifty dollars or less, and this was advantageous for the Dean campaign when it came to accepting federal matching funds. The FEC matches only part of the maximum donation allowed, which is $2,400 for the 2009-2010 election cycle and is adjusted for inflation each election, but it matches 100 percent of small donations. Many of Dean's contributors went back to his website several times to make multiple small donations. The most significant benefit of Dean's Internet campaign, though, was the national attention it won for him. The press gave his unique strategy much exposure, and he shot to the top of the polls. Although his personality caused him trouble later and derailed his candidacy, his campaign established a model for future campaigns.

pseudopolls

In 1982, a public-opinion researcher named Barry Orton identified a whole class of what he called pseudopolls. These include polls on radio talk shows, in magazines, on television, and on the Internet that ask people to call in or log on to give their opinions. Such polls may generate thousands of responses, but you can't give them any weight at all. Obviously, they are not representative because respondents select themselves to participate. Without careful sampling, polls generate unrepresentative and misleading results. Their questions also often have loaded and unfair wording. These polls are becoming more and more prevalent, and you should be very careful about reading anything into them because the people who take the time to participate in them are not representative of the population. `

Burstyn v. Wilson

In Burstyn v. Wilson (1952), the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a New York state law allowing for the banning of movies which were deemed to be sacrilegious. The court found that the term "sacrilegious" was too vague and that there was no legitimate government interest in protecting religious groups from material they found offensive. They found, in other words, that movies were entitled to the same First Amendment protections as newspapers, magazines, and other media. This overturned the court's decision in Mutual Film Corporation v. Ohio.

Father Charles Coughlin

Many radio shows have a populist tone. A populist tone has always been appealing. At the height of his popularity during the Great Depression, Father Charles Coughlin reached a third of Americans who owned radios. Talk radio allows callers to express their attitudes, and it allows listeners to identify with them, giving everyone a sense of power and importance.

Simple Random Sampling

In a simple random sample, every element in the population has an equal chance of being selected for the sample. For this method, you compile a list of everyone in the population and then randomly choose a sample. This is not a feasible way to sample the population of America because it is too large. There is no comprehensive list of everyone in that population. Not even the census, conducted every ten years by the federal government, measures every single person in the population. Because there is no list of every person in the country, we must rely on other methods of sampling.

Mutual Film Corporation v. Ohio

In that decision, the court found that the movie industry was a business, like any other for-profit business, and therefore was not entitled to the special protections of the First Amendment. So, the reformers who pressured the movie industry to agree to voluntary censorship could always point to the possibility of government censorship if the movie executives and producers didn't play along.(4) I

Stratified Sampling

In this kind of sampling, the population is divided into subsets according to demographic characteristics that are of interest to the researcher, such as age, income, and ethnicity. People are then sampled randomly from each subset. This guarantees that a sample will include a sufficient number of cases with characteristics of interest to the researcher. This method reduces sampling error because more care is taken to ensure that all of the elements of a population are reflected. The sample is representative of the population.

Incumbent advantage 320

Incumbents get additional attention through coverage of their official duties. Lack of coverage makes it difficult for everyone to know the person.

Casting

Is early in the primaries when newspeople, on the basis of as yet slender evidence, predict winners and losers to narrow the fields of eligibles who must be covered.

Positive and negative of homogeneity of coverage 324

It can be difficult to develop political consensus if you don't have homogeneity. Uniform means things will be ignored amongst all platforms. This can lead to ignorance in the American people.

Most important influence of media? 335

It does not lie in changing votes once predispositions have been formed but in shaping and reinforcing predispositions and influencing the initial selection of candidates. When newspeople sketched out the Clinton image and held them up as a potential winner during the 1992 primaries, ignoring most of his rivals, they morphed the obscure governor of a small southern state into a viable candidate. Millions of voters would never have cast their ballots for the unknown arkansas politician had not the media thrust him into the limelight as a likely winner.

Growth in spending... Lesson 8

It is a lot of money to run for office.

Lack of content analysis makes learning studies difficult - why? 333

It makes it impossible to test what impact diverse messages have on viewers' perception. In general researchers have also failed to ascertain media exposure accurately. They assume people have been exposed to all election stories. They don't ask what each individual actually learned from it. Consonant: the information strengthens that view and the person's feelings about the candidate. If it is dissonant, the person is likely to reject it outright or note it as a reasonable exception to their established schema.

Why is the story portrayed in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington so influential and enduring?

It represents the ideal of how the American political system is supposed to work. Jimmy Stewart's character goes to Washington, sees what is wrong and does what he can to fix it. This is a Hollywood myth because there is seemingly always corruption in Washington, but that makes the myth appealing because we are always hoping that if the right person comes along, such as Barack Obama in 2008, he or she can fix things.

5. Explain the reasons that conducting surveys by telephone is becoming increasingly difficult, if not impossible. Be sure to discuss two problems. (2 points)

It's difficult because of the different numbers and landlines. Also if they decide to forward their calls. Landlines are sampling households, but people use cell phones. There are also call-blocking technology. People can see who it is before answering, so many people won't answer. It isn't accurate at all (Telephone Interview).

Modern mass party

Jackson's reelection campaign in 1832 was even more of an effort to appeal to voters at the mass level. Van Buren, who became Jackson's vice president, managed the campaign and is often given credit for creating the modern mass party—a party that reached out to average people, instead of merely playing to elite policy makers. It was during this campaign that politics became something that the average person paid attention to and was even entertained by. The campaign featured cookouts, rallies, and mass meetings that became standard events in American elections.

Structural bias 329

Not partisan, but may profoundly affect people's perceptions about campaigns.

Three important themes he uses to analyze the media:

Journalistic values and political values are at odds with one another, which results in a news agenda that misrepresents what is at stake in the choice among the candidates. Journalistic values, though supposedly neutral, introduce an element of random partisanship into the campaign, which coincidentally works to the advantage of one side or another. Election news, rather than serving to bring candidates and voters together, drives a wedge between them.

Long span of media king making

Kingmaker- or killer of the dreams of would-be-kings. Image making by the media. We can shape and destroy someone.

2. Describe the difference between leadership and representation, using the concepts of trustee and delegate. (2 points)

Leadership is when people take ownership and guide people in its best interests. People may not know what their best interests are at that point in time. They are also known as trustees, which are officials that are elected by voters to make the right decisions. Representation is when someone is just there to represent solely what the people want and hear from them. Delegates are an example of this. They are officials who make decisions based off of what their constituents want (Leadership versus Representation).

In general, what is the contribution of the television shows of Norman Lear?

Lear's shows broke down many taboos and barriers. His shows were often the first to deal with divisive issues of race, sexuality, abortion, and others. Through the struggle of the characters to deal with these issues, in both serious and humorous ways, the American public saw the possibility of things being different.

normative

Let us attempt to look at the role of public opinion from a normative perspective. Normative means "ought to be." When we discuss public opinion from a normative perspective, we are talking about the role public opinion ought to play in our society. We should ask what role should public opinion play in the decisions made by our representatives. This is a question of leadership (trustees) versus representation (delegates).

Impacts of negative coverage 330

Makes voters want to stay home. Undermines newly elected official to command support after the election, especially from members of the opposing party.

activist celebrities

Many celebrities promote issues such as fighting diseases such as AIDS, protecting the environment, a pro-choice or pro-life stance on abortion, and different positions on foreign policy. It is really not difficult to find celebrities involved in charity, both donating money and their names to causes. The most effective use of celebrities is when they are attached to causes that are not otherwise well known.`

Heavy coverage of Iowa and New Hampshire and its influence on candidates 320

Media coverage is usually very heavy there. The campaign wants to show the best sides of the candidates.

New media have changed power balance some 311

Media gives them more control over shaping their image. Obama had control over his image.

Microtargeting

Microtargeting is (also called micro-targeting or micro-niche targeting) is a marketing strategy that uses consumer data and demographics to identify the interests of specific individuals or very small groups of like-minded individuals and influence their thoughts or actions.

What is the "first battle of politics" that candidates must win? Why do politicians and causes try to attract the support of celebrities? What effect do celebrities have on a campaign or a cause?

Name recognition is the first battle of politics. Celebrities attract media attention, giving the politicians and causes they favor a higher level of exposure, raising awareness, and raising funds.

Endorsements

News outlets will endorse It affects lower-level offices. It promotes candidates and denotes others.

Online processing

Once they read the news. People only remember the impression, not necessarily the details. Creates a false impression that the average person has formed opinions about the candidate without having learned the appropriate facts.

5. What does Patterson argue is the consequence of negative coverage of politics and politicians by the news media? (2 points)

One of Patterson's biggest concerns is the question of what is the impact of this negative coverage. Throughout the book he gives evidence of a link between negative coverage and negative opinion about politicians and suggests it is not coincidence. We are more negative in our feelings about politicians because that is the diet we are fed by the media. Given this evidence, Patterson's major thesis of the book is this: The United States cannot have a sensible campaign as long as it is built around the news media. Although he wrote this in 1994, the same argument can be made today, because if anything has changed, it is that campaigns are now more centered on the news media than they were at the time of Patterson's writing.

Aimee Semple McPherson

One of the most famous early users of radio was Aimee Semple McPherson, known as "Sister Aimee." She built what would today be known as a mega-church in Los Angeles called the Angelus Temple which featured its own radio station, KFSG (for Foursquare Gospel). McPherson preached sermons on the air, but she also advocated several political issues, including opposing the teaching of evolution and opposing communism. She was pro-civil rights and supported many of the social welfare programs of the New Deal, although she was not really politically aligned with FDR. McPherson's career stumbled badly after a strange incident in which she claimed to be kidnapped but, for a short time, she was very influential, and radio was an important part of her influence. You can learn more about Sister Aimee at this PBS American Experience website: Sister Aimee

There are several possible explanations presented in this lesson for the question of why political talk radio is dominated by conservative talk. What are those explanations?

One possibility, which doesn't seem likely as an explanation, is that there are simply more conservatives than liberals. Another explanation is that conservatives see a greater need for an alternate media, an alternate to the liberal mainstream media. A third explanation is that liberals' listening needs are served by NPR and ethnic radio for Latinos and African Americans.

Kam and Zechmeiser research

One recent study found, for example, that just making sure that voters know your name as a candidate can help a great deal come Election Day. Kam and Zechmeiser found that name recognition matters, that there is a direct connection between name recognition and support for a candidate. This effect is especially strong in lower profile elections: if voters don't know anything about the candidates, they will vote for the name they recognize.(7) Television adv

Ridout and Fowler study

One study, by Ridout and Fowler (2012), found, for instance, that viewers' perception of the tone of an ad as negative or positive is significantly influenced by how it is covered on local news. Ads can be positive or negative, and viewers are capable of perceiving that, of course, but they are more likely to perceive ads as negative if local news reporters frame stories about ads as part of a candidate's strategy. If an ad is presented in the context of strategy, they are more likely to see it as negative. So, when TV news focuses on strategy, as opposed to issues, in a campaign, it affects our perception of the campaign, making us see it in a more negative light.

Hard to isolate importance of individual campaign strategies. Reasons why? 321-322

One thing eats to another. Ads get influence which then leads to news stories and editorials.

random-digit dialing

One way to avoid the problem of unlisted numbers is to use random-digit dialing, in which a computer is used to randomly dial numbers. This is a complicated process, especially with the proliferation of numbers and new area codes.

Paid media

Paid media refers to commercials purchased by a campaign.

Parody

Parody is the imitation of something, perhaps by exaggerating a point or someone's characteristics, for comedic effect.

What is the difference between parody and satire?

Parody is the imitation of something, perhaps by exaggerating a point or someone's characteristics, for comedic effect. Satire is comedy which holds an idea, a person, etc. up for ridicule, in order to make a political point through humor.

3. What does it mean to say that some polls try to measure opinion while others try to collect opinion? What is a push poll? Is it used to measure or collect opinion? (2 points)

Polls trying to measure opinion are those that care about what people are actually thinking. Polls trying to collect opinion are used to help push an agenda. They collect people's opinions and use them for a larger public relations campaign (commentary). These polls are used to change people's opinions. The questions are usually inaccurate and push people to think a certain way (Question Wording).

Why do the movie and television industries self-censor?

They do this in order to prevent the government from getting in the business of censoring. This has happened time after time in the history of movies and television, starting with the efforts of the movie producers to put an end to censorship by local and state censorship boards in the 1920s.

1. What is the major thesis of Patterson's book Out of Order? (2 points)

Patterson says politicians do lie about some things, but these are things everyone would lie about. He said the press makes us thinks politicians automatically lie about everything on the campaign trail (Patterson's Prologue). When they fail to keep campaign promises, Patterson argues, it is not necessarily because they lied. In some cases, candidates are constrained in following through on their promises by the interests that support their party and whose support they need. In their defense, Patterson argues that it doesn't make sense for candidates to make false promises. He argues that they have a stronger incentive to keep promises than to break them. He also argues that personal philosophies and causes guide candidate choices. They don't simply make promises to gain political points. From Patterson's perspective, journalists are the problem when it comes to promises. Since the outcome of promises is in the future, journalists are free to say nearly anything they want. How can anyone disprove the journalist's claim that a candidate has no intention of keeping his promise?

Issues important to voters not the same as media 334

People care about economy more than the media does. It's more persona.

Nonattitudes

People tend to answer questions whether they know what we're talking about or not, so we need to be cautious when looking at survey data about complicated topics. Do people have genuine attitudes on the poll topic? If we take a poll and treat nonattitudes (uninformed answers given to survey questions) as real opinions, we will produce a misleading portrait of public opinion. There isn't a lot we can do about this. We can't challenge the survey respondents about whether they're being truthful. If we insult them, they'll hang up on us or slam the door in our face.

11. What are nonattitudes and what is problematic about the way survey takers attempt to alleviate them? (2 points)

People will answer even if they don't know what they are talking about. Sometimes polls aren't true public opinion. Make it extremely clear for what the question is. The surveyor could also skip the question if they wanted (Nonattitudes).

Radio was once a medium dominated by music. Now, it is dominated by talk. Why is this?

Political scientists Jeffrey M. Berry and Sarah Sobieraj argue there are two major reasons, one technological and one regulatory. First, technology advancement has ushered in major changes in the ways people listen to music. They argue that we now have so many ways to program our own music listening (MP3s, services such as Pandora, satellite radio channels with specific types of music, etc.) that it is very difficult for stations broadcasting music over the air to attract audiences.(2) Why listen to music chosen by others when we can so easily pick what we want to listen to? The second reason Berry and Sobieraj cite has to do with changes in the law: the elimination of the fairness doctrine, which we discussed in Lessons 1 and 2. The fairness doctrine required broadcasters to present both sides of political issues. So, if a radio station were to broadcast a liberal (or conservative) talk show, it would have been required to broadcast a show of the opposite perspective to be in compliance with the fairness doctrine. If one of the shows was popular and the other unpopular, that would mean the station would be making money with one show and losing it with the other. There was no financial incentive to take that kind of risk. Getting rid of the fairness doctrine eliminated that risk.(3)

Why do the movie and television industries self-censor?

Role of journalists in the TV age 310

Power of journalists to influence the selection of candidates, the requirement for candidates to "televise well," and the explosive growth and diversification of made-for-media campaigns.

Patterson argues that the news media see campaigns differently than voters. He argues they use different schemas. What are these schemas and what is the impact of these two groups having different schemas?

Press has a game schema, voters have a governing schema. Press want to cover things as a competition, voters want to know who will be the best president, whom they should vote for. Voters are not well-served by reporting done from a game schema.

9. Why have the networks limited their coverage of the national party conventions? Is this a positive or negative development, and why? (3 points)

They don't cover the conventions as much because they aren't as interesting to the public as before. They use to be suspenseful back then, but now that isn't the case. They thought it was just time for the national parties to get air time, so it didn't seem as important. This is probably for the better since most of the newsworthy discussions happen behind doors (Conventions and Debates).

Define "public opinion" and list its three component parts.

Public opinion is a collection of individual opinions, which are composed of attitudes (our likes and dislikes), beliefs (our ideas about how the world really is), and values (our feelings about how things ought to be).

Lesson 11.... Define "public opinion" and list its three component parts.

Public opinion

Public opinion is a collection of individual opinions, which are influenced by attitudes, beliefs, and values.

Political bias 329

Reflects ideological judgements whereas structural has reflects the circumstances of news production.

7. What is the game schema? (2 points)

Reporters think of campaigns as someone is winning, like a game. This is different from how voters think of it, so the media provides information that is not helpful to people (Patterson's Chapter Two).

The following questions refer to Matthew Baum's article "Sex, Lies, and War: How Soft News Brings Foreign Policy to the Inattentive Public": How does Baum define "soft news"? Is this a satisfactory definition? What is Baum's basic hypothesis? What does he find when he tests this hypothesis?

Sample answers for these questions, which relate to an assigned article, are not provided in order to encourage you to think through the issues on your own.

Satire

Satire is comedy which holds an idea, a person, etc. up for ridicule, in order to make a political point through humor.

Schema theory

Schema theory has been used in many contexts in psychological and political science research. Schemas are intellectual short cuts that allow us to make conclusions about political parties, politicians, policies, and so forth, without having to have a large amount of detailed information cluttering our heads. The theory comes from research by scholars such as Amos Kahneman and Daniel Tversky on short cuts they called heuristics.(39) Schemas are summaries of information, rather than detailed supplies of information. As one pair of researchers, Susan Fiske and ShelleyTaylor (1991), put it, we are "cognitive misers,"(40) who have limited knowledge storage space and we develop mental shorthand to condense a lot of information into a short, easily used impression, such as Palin doesn't know what she's talking about; or, Palin isn't ready for prime time; or, Palin is a hick from the sticks.

Leslie Stahl 314

She attacked Regan for posturing as a man of peace and compassion during the 1984 presidential campaign. Reagan thanked her for showing a great deal of time of great pictures of the president.

11. Briefly explain the "digital divide" that was discovered by Carlisle and Patton in their study of Facebook use in the 2008 campaign. (2 points)

They found that many of the barriers between people getting involved with politics remains the same on social media. If you are wealthier you are more likely to participate in politics and be politically active on Facebook. People with money participate online more than those who don't have money (Campaign Information).

7. What are question-wording effects? Give an example of this effect. (2 points)

Small wording differences can affect the answers people give. We need to look at if certain words are viewed as biased or potentially offensive. Watch for double negatives or weird words. One example is when a poll asked if people were in "favor or oppose taking military action in Iraq to end Saddam Hussein's rule," 68% said they favored military action while 25% said they opposed military action. However, when asked whether they would "favor or oppose taking military action in Iraq to end Saddam Hussein's rule even if it meant that U.S. forces might suffer thousands of casualties," the percentage dropped dramatically.

7. One question about advertising is whether negative advertising is good or bad for voters. In two to three sentences, summarize the research of scholars who argue it is bad for voters. (2 points)

Some others will say it makes them stay at home. Some people say all of the negative ads make all the races seem similar. Negative ads are good for close races. Stephan Ansolabehere say that a negative ad turns elections into entertainment and takes away democracy. (The Impact of Political Advertising).

What is the difference between measuring and collecting opinion?

Some polls try to objectively measure opinion, meaning the people conducting the poll genuinely are interested in what people are thinking and design their polls using scientific techniques in order to get results that are as accurate as possible. Some people, though, want to collect opinions so they can use their poll results as part of a larger public relations campaign.

10. What are respondent problems? Give an example. (2 points)

Sometimes words and phrases mean something different to different people. You have to be sure to interpret them the same way. An example would be "in the past few days". (Respondent Problems).

What is the recent trend in campaign fund-raising and campaign spending. What factors are driving that trend?

Spending has gone up dramatically with each election. This is due to the cost of media centered campaigns, but it is also driven, in the post-Citizens United world, by the advertising of independent groups, which are spending hundreds of millions of dollars.

Web still secondary but very important for candidates. How?

Television chief source for politicians, but fewer people tune into it. People choose sources that agree with them.

Why did Obama money go farther than Romney money?

They funded their own ads for the lowest rates in local markets. Ads funded by outside groups are subject to whatever the going ad buy rate is per market.

The China Syndrome

The China Syndrome didn't have a political agenda to raise concerns about the possible dangers of nuclear energy, but the impact of their efforts may not have been so great, except for the fact that the release of the movie coincided with America's single largest nuclear energy accident, the partial meltdown of a reactor at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, near the Pennsylvania state capital of Harrisburg. The movie was released on March 16, 1979. The accident at Three Mile Island happened on March 29, 1979, roughly two weeks later.

3. According to Patterson, what makes the media "ill-equipped to mediate elections?" (3 points)

The media is not able to organize the entire election coherently. They will try, but it won't work. The media will look for stories instead that bring attention and give voters a reliable picture about the campaign, when it really isn't reliable (Patterson's Chapter One).

12. In the 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns, both major party candidates raised money and campaigned online but, in both elections, the Obama campaign was especially innovative. Briefly describe two ways in which the Obama campaign was innovative. (2 points)

The Obama campaign benefited from small donations on social media. He collected email addresses to send out campaigns. He also signed people up for the text messaging campaign. They created a website where thousands of events were organized to reach people. They kept this grassroots campaign network there. (The Internet and Campaign Fund-raising).

6. What did the Republican Party plan for 2016 in order to make debates a more positive experience for candidates and voters? (2 points)

The Republican Party, in particular, discussed the notion that this many debates was ultimately damaging to the party and decided to keep the number of debates much smaller in 2016. Apparently the debates were very damaging to the party. The Republican Party then decided to keep the number of debates to a smaller number in 2016 (Conventions and Debates). In January 2015 at the annual meeting of the Republican National Committee, the party announced that the number of debates would be cut nearly in half and that the debates would be distributed more evenly around the country geographically, instead of holding the majority of them in states with early primaries and caucuses. These changes will almost certainly be good for the Republican Party.

9. According to Patterson, what metaphor do the news media use to describe campaigns in election news? (1 point)

The media uses words that refer to war and fighting. This gives off the idea that two parties are in a war with each other. The controversies are on the top so there is a negative connotation (Reporters' issues v. Candidates' issues).

Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act

The act made it illegal for the parties to spend unlimited money known as soft money- which is money raised by parties and used to run ads on behalf of their candidates. It is also illegal for labor unions and corporations to pay for advertisements out of their general revenue in the weeks before the election.

What is the "daisy ad"? When did it run? Why is it so famous?

The ad is from President Johnson's 1964 campaign and played on perceptions of his opponent, Barry Goldwater, as a dangerous extremist. In the ad, a girl plucks the petals off a daisy as an announcer counts down to the final image, which is of a nuclear explosion. The ad is famous for being the first truly negative campaign television ad and because it made an effective attack on Goldwater without ever actually mentioning his name.

selection biases

The advantages of probability sampling are clear. They tend to be more representative of the population than other kinds of samples because they avoid selection biases, meaning that they don't over- or underrepresent important segments of the population. A sample that is representative of the population, with no selection biases, looks like a miniversion of the population. In other words, the population and the sample will have the same percentage of men and women, whites and other ethnic groups, different economic groups, different age groups, and so on. Researchers use statistical theory to judge how accurately the sample reflects the population, calculating a statistic known as sampling error, which we will discuss below. Self-selected surveys, also known as pseudopolls, such as those you see on cable news channels, don't allow for such tests.

8. Patterson argues that campaign coverage falls into a few familiar storylines. List and briefly explain three of these. (3 points)

The bandwagon storyline is when the press covers someone with a lot of momentum. The losing ground storyline is when media gives reasons for why someone is losing. This is not good coverage. The likely loser storyline is a negative one. This talks about why someone may lose and predicts it that way (Patterson's Chapter Three). Front-runner storyline: candidate with a presumably safe lead, and it contains some positive elements.

Interviewer Effects

The behavior of the interviewer can also influence the answers given to survey questions. This effect can be seen in both face-to-face interviews and phone interviews. Interviewer effects may take several forms. Organizers of a survey must train interviewers to be consistent and uniform in how they treat each respondent in order to minimize concerns about the reliability of the measuring instrument. Reliability refers to the ability to use the instrument repeatedly to get consistent results. The interviewer's demeanor, competence, and performance can all affect the success of an interview. Personal characteristics of both respondent and poll takers, including ethnicity and gender, may also affect results.

Call-in shows

The call-in feature allows listeners to participate in the broadcast directly and has contributed greatly to the popularity of talk radio. Such shows have the power of call-in talk radio to draw in listeners and make them emotional stakeholders in the broadcasts. Even if we don't call in ourselves, we generally are more engaged as we agree or disagree with the callers (we may feel defensively for the host, for example, if the caller is arguing with her).

10. In its assessment of social media's role in the 2012 campaign, the Pew report offered several observations about social media and politics. Briefly explain three of the four main points discussed. (3 points)

The report said most people who donated did so through the internet. 66 percent of registered voters said they went online to watch videos related to politics. 40 percent watched previously recorded videos of campaigns. And 37 percent said they watched political ads online. This shows the mighty impact social media has on campaigns. (Campaign information).

What dilemmas an important dilemma about the appropriate role of public opinion in a representative democracy?

The first is the question of leadership versus representation. Elected officials can see themselves as trustees or delegates. Trustees are officials who see it as their duty to do things they think are right, as opposed to things they think the voters want. They believe they were elected because people had faith in their judgment, and they behave accordingly. Delegates are officials who seek constant guidance from their constituents, relying heavily on public opinion.

6. There are three themes Patterson uses to analyze the media. Briefly, what are these three themes? (3 points)

The first one is that political values and what journalists value are different from each other. This means what people are hearing in the media may not be entirely accurate. The second is that journalists say they are neutral, but there is partisanship to an extent, and this can mislead the public. Or it can help one side and hurt the other. The third is that election news usually drives wedges between candidates and voters (Patterson's Chapter One).

. Briefly explain five of the six production elements involved in putting together a campaign commercial. Be sure to cite an example from the ads reviewed in the lesson when answering this question. You should refer to one ad for each of the production elements. (5 points)

The first thing you need is a visual image. They capture the viewer's attention and keep them engaged. You need visual text that people can easily read and get the information from. Music and sound effects will help convey emotion and make the video professional. Good editing will make the advertisement seem smooth so that the viewer doesn't even noticed it was edited (Production Elements of an Ad).

Andrew Jackson mass audience campaign.

The first time a campaign was aimed at a mass audience was when Andrew Jackson ran for president in 1828. In 1824, Jackson won the popular vote but failed to win a majority of Electoral College votes. This meant the election had to be settled by the House of Representatives, which would choose from among the three candidates who had the largest number of electoral votes: Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and Henry Clay. Clay persuaded his supporters in the House to vote for Adams, and when Adams became president, one of his first acts was to name Clay to the position of secretary of state, which was considered a stepping-stone to the presidency. Jackson was outraged and accused Clay and Adams of making a "corrupt bargain." In this election, a number of regional "favorite son" candidates were pitted against each other. In 1828, however, thanks largely to the efforts of Martin Van Buren, a prominent Democrat from the state of New York, Democrats from around the country united in support of Jackson, who won the South, the West, New York, and Pennsylvania.

What are 21st century campaigns structured to do? 31

They are structured to garner the most favorable media exposure, reaching the largest number of prospective supporters, with the greatest degree of candidate control over the message. Photoshoots and press conferences.

4. A goal of candidates making ad buys is to maximize gross ratings points for the least amount of money. What are gross ratings points? (2 points)

The gross ratings points is getting a television ad slot that airs the most times for the least amount of money. This will help bring name recognition and save money at the same time (Advertising Strategies).

8. What are the advantages to candidates that cause them to frequently appear on talk shows and other entertainment-oriented shows? (2 points)

The hosts on the shows are less critical of politicians. They ask and talk about things in a light-hearted way. This also gives politicians a chance to do something lighthearted and break the barrier with the audience. They could sing or play an instrument (Campaigning before Television).

Media echo effect 326

The increase of polls and the media fascination with seeing the race through their strategic lens create a repeating and reinforcing pattern in which the media reinforce and magnify the phenomena they observe. The press covers what the candidate does that day. The polls measure the political impact of that behavior.

What innovation made political talk radio a popular medium? What effect does talk radio have on listeners?

The innovation was the ability to let listeners call in. This makes listeners more interested because they feel like they are actively participating, even if they haven't actually called in themselves. Listening to talk radio makes people feel higher political efficacy and makes them more likely to participate in the political process.

Respondent Problems

The last problem we will look at (there are others, of course) is the question of personal differences in construing the meaning of language. Each of us is likely to interpret the same question differently. When I hear the phrase "in the past few days," for example, I think of three or four days, but you might think of two days, five days, or a week. Interpretations can be quite diverse. This is problematic because a researcher who compiles several hundred surveys assumes that all the respondents interpret the questions in the same way when in fact it is likely that they all had something different in mind.

Question order

The order in which questions are asked can affect the results of a survey. Here is a classic example from a 1950s survey conducted by the American Journalism Review. The two questions in the experiment were "Do you think the U.S. should let communist newspaper reporters from other countries come in here and send back to their papers the news as they see it?" and "Do you think a communist country like Russia should let American newspaper reporters come in and send back to America the news as they see it?" When the questions were asked in this order, support for letting communist reporters come to the United States was much lower than when the questions were asked in reverse order. Why was this so? The researchers concluded that it was difficult for respondents to deny Soviet reporters the chance to come to the United States if they had already said Americans should be allowed to go to the Soviet Union. In this experiment, the questions were asked consecutively, but one question can affect another even when they are separated by many other questions. In a 1980 Harris Poll about the Democratic primary, the first question asked respondents whether they favored Jimmy Carter or Ted Kennedy for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Then the survey asked several questions about the economy, foreign policy, and other issues. The last question again asked who respondents would vote for, and support for Carter was significantly less this time. After respondents took time to think about President Carter's record, which they had to do to answer the policy questions, they revised their opinions about the two candidates. The question order effect is very real and effects "public opinion" on many subjects. Take the question of support for same sex marriage, for instance. A Pew poll in 2003 asked people about support for same sex marriage versus civil unions. The poll "found that people were more likely to favor allowing gays and lesbians to enter into legal agreements that give them the same rights as married couples when this question was asked after one about whether they favored or opposed allowing gays and lesbians to marry (45 percent favored legal agreements when asked after the marriage question, but 37 percent favored legal agreements without the immediate preceding context of a question about gay marriage). Responses to the question about gay marriage, meanwhile, were not significantly affected by its placement before or after the legal agreements question."(11) One type of question which is frequently reported in the news media has to do with people's opinion about how the country is doing. Pew found that the answers to that question varied depending on what was asked before it, such as in this 2008 example: "When people were asked: 'All in all, are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way things are going in this country today?' immediately after having been asked 'Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president?' 88 percent said they were dissatisfied compared with only 78 percent without the context of the prior question. Responses to presidential approval remained relatively unchanged whether national satisfaction was asked before or after it."(12)

Good pictures counter unfavorable comments 314

The picture can show the president more than what a reporter may negatively say.

11. What are two of the three goals of a nominating process which, Patterson argues, the press are not fulfilling? (2 points)

The press will try and follow who the "front-runner" is and figure out why people are or are not voting in primaries. The press tries to interpret what is happening during the process, but they are not able to accurately portray it. They let their analysis influence voters (Patterson's Chapter Five).

probability sampling

The science of statistics tells us that it isn't necessary to survey every adult in the country in order to gauge public opinion. We can use a comparatively small sample to get a good idea of what everyone is thinking. This is called probability sampling, and it is conducted in a representative, scientific way. The analogy that scholars of public opinion such as Herb Asher often make is the blood test. When you go to the doctor for a check-up, he or she doesn't draw out all your blood to test; the doctor draws out a test tube or two and can tell what's going on in your body from that small sample. Polling works the same way—we can tell, with a known level of accuracy, what an entire population is thinking by measuring a small sample of it.

But we can try to minimize the problem of nonattitudes.

The simplest way is to make it clear that it is acceptable for respondents to say they are unfamiliar with the topic of a question and that the surveyor can skip the question. Another technique is to use preliminary screening questions to separate likely attitude holders from nonattitude holders. For example, a preliminary question might be "Do you have an opinion on this topic or not?" or "Have you thought much about this issue?" If the respondent says no, the surveyor knows not to bother asking a more substantive question on that issue.

What is one of the major causes of the dramatic increase in campaign spending in recent elections, besides increased spending by the candidates themselves?

The television industry has made campaign funding very expensive. It is very expensive to run ads on television, but it is a very important way to communicate with people. There are other groups donating to campaigns such as Super Pacs and and 527s. They spend an enormous amount of money. They can spend unlimited amounts on ads that benefit or attack candidates (Behaviors of candidates and others trying to sway our votes).

Why is it possible that the days of accurate phone polling are coming to an end?

There are a few reasons, most of which relate to the fact that fewer people have landlines. Law prevents the use of random digit dialing for cell phones, which makes it more time consuming and expensive to get an accurate sample. Caller id and number portability make this problem even bigger.

What does it mean to say that the communications marketplace is fragmented?

There are many more choices available to media consumers now than there used to be: besides the print media, there are network television, cable television, satellite television, radio, and the Internet. This complicates the task of campaigners as they design their strategies to reach out to as many voters as possible.

West suggests there are four principles advertisers rely upon to influence voters. Briefly explain each of the four.

They are: principles of stereotyping, association, demonization, and code words. Stereotyping refers to playing on commonly held ideas of what Democrats and Republicans stand for. Demonization refers to trying to associate an opponent with something (or someone) negative. Association means trying to associate, in a positive way, with something or someone. Code words refers to short, easily remembered phrases that carry larger messages about the candidate or her opponent.

How do Delli Carpini and Williams justify paying more attention to entertainment media as sources of political information?

They argue that too much attention is paid to traditional news. Traditional news has been, in part, discredited. In addition, they argue that politically relevant communication is any information which makes a difference to people, which informs people, which has an influence on people.

Federal Election Commission and Internal Revenue Service

They can legally raise and spend unlimited amounts on ads that benefit or attack candidates for office. The spending needs to be independent from that of any candidate.

what impact does it have on its audiences?

There are many social commentators who argue that talk radio is bad for politics in America because it so often seems intolerant. If hosts are on the air preaching intolerance, such commentators argue, it must be having a negative impact on the people that listen to it. There are several scholars that have attempted to answer this question, examining various aspects of the question. For example, Lee and Cappella found that listeners tend to agree more with the kind of extreme arguments made by talk radio hosts (in this case, Limbaugh) the more they listen. They also found that people who claim to be of a different political ideology than the host of the show also tend to be in agreement with the host the longer they listen.(8) R. Lance Holbert (2004) found that talk radio indirectly affected listeners' perceptions of the fairness of the 2000 presidential election. Listeners were, of course, influenced by their feelings about the candidates, Al Gore and George W. Bush, but Holbert found that, after accounting for that factor, talk radio made people perceive Bush more positively and Gore more negatively.(9) Bennett (1998, 2002) researched the influence of talk radio and found first that listening to talk radio was positively linked to political knowledge but found, in a subsequent study, that after controlling for a variety of intervening variables, talk radio did not improve listeners' levels of political knowledge.(10) Hibbing and Theiss-Morse found that people who get their political information primary from radio and television (as opposed to print media) are more likely to feel negative emotions about Congress as an institution.(11) In a study of the impact of talk radio on perceptions of Bill Clinton, researcher Diane Owen found that people who listen to talk radio had a more negative impression of Clinton, but she also found that when she controlled for listeners' political predispositions, the people listening to talk radio that was anti-Clinton were politically likely to dislike Clinton already.(12) This finding agrees with a conclusion made by Berry and Sobieraj, that, "The self-selection bias in who listens to talk radio makes it exceptionally difficult to evaluate causality."(13) It is, in other words, hard to say with certainty what impact talk radio has on listeners because listeners are likely to seek out shows that espouse views with which they already agree.

Why more conservative talkshows.

There are possible reasons that don't have to get too deeply into the weeds of ideological disagreement, although the first, suggested by political scientist William Mayer, might. Mayer argues, questionably, that there are simply more conservatives than liberals in the United States. He cites several surveys as support for this contention, but there are plenty of other studies that show them to be basically the same size. However, while there is reason to disagree with Mayer's conclusion about audience size, the other argument he makes is an interesting one. Mayer contends that conservatives are very different from liberals in their trust of the media. He writes, "...conservatives think they have a greater need for these shows - that talk radio provides them with information and viewpoints that they simply cannot get from the 'mainstream media.' American liberals are, on the whole, much less aggrieved about the way the news gets reported..." It doesn't matter, he argues, whether is actually a bias or not. What matters is how consumers perceive the media and conservatives are more likely to perceive a bias than are liberals.(6) Mayer's hypothesis is supported by political scientist Stephen Earl Bennett, who found that the best predictors of who are likely to listen to political talk radio are 1) interest in politics; and 2) distrust of the "mainstream media."(7)

What are some potential problems with surveys?

There are problems of intent (what was the purpose for taking the survey in the first place?); problems with questions (the wording and order of questions can affect responses); sampling problems (did the survey researcher properly sample the population he or she was hoping to measure? Is the sample representative of the population?); interviewer problems (the way an interviewer asks questions can affect results, as can the ethnicity and gender of the interviewer); and respondent problems (people can base their answers on nonattitudes, lie to avoid looking bad, and interpret the questions differently than others).

What variables determine the effectiveness of a campaign commercial?

There are three categories of variables that determine ads' effectiveness. (a) The conditions of the race: Are the candidates both unknown? Is one a well-known incumbent? Ads are usually more effective for lesser-known candidates because they help to form people's impressions (good or bad) of the candidate. (b) The candidates' advertising strategies: Candidates have many strategic decisions to make about their ad campaigns. They need to decide how many ads to run, what type of ads to run, when to run them, and how often to run them. The goal is to get specific messages to specific constituencies in today's fragmented communications marketplace. This means that the candidate has to pick the right media outlet and the right times of day to reach the desired constituents. (c) The third category is the content and tone of the ad. The research is a bit confusing on this. Research by Iyengar and others indicates that negative ads turn people off and cause them not to vote. However, more recent research, such as the journal article by Goldstein and Freedman, indicates that negative ads have a stimulating effect on turnout.

5. Why do televised debates not serve voters very well? (2 points)

There is little direct confrontation between candidates. People don't make their decisions based off of the televised debates. They don't engage with each other. They just give mini speeches to each other. The debates really happen behind the scenes when people decide how many debates to have and where. They try and perform to the cameras (Conventions and Debates).

According to the Graber book, media coverage of campaigns has become more negative. What are the consequences of negative campaign coverage? (2 points)

There is so much criticism of the government that we don't really get a chance to talk about substantive issues. Journalists focus on their thoughts and analysis and not what the actual issues are. People now don't trust as much in the government and the media (negativity of coverage).

Super Pacs, 501(c)s, and 527s

These are special interest groups organizations.

8. What are question order effects? Give an example. (2 points)

These are the real effects of public opinion on "When people were asked: 'All in all, are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way things are going in this country today?' immediately after having been asked 'Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president?' 88 percent said they were dissatisfied compared with only 78 percent without the context of the prior question. many subjects. Sometimes responses vary based on what was asked before that question (Question Order).

How did the films of Sidney Poitier contribute to the achievements of the civil rights movement?

These movies all featured, in one way or another, acceptance of a black character, or the development of positive relations between black characters and white characters. In the movie In the Heat of the Night, the chief of police and Poitier's character didn't become friends, but at the end, the chief has respect for Poitier's ability as a professional.

Shared professionalization's impact 324

They all have an idea of what is newsworthy, so it can come off as being the same and having an impact on what all viewers think.

Candidates face four key choices when designing ads and buying television time in which to run them:

They must decide how many issues to emphasize. There is a trade-off between many messages and a few. Having many messages allows a candidate to appeal to different types of voters and experiment with various alternatives until successful messages are found. The disadvantage is that voters and the press will become confused and not have a clear view of the candidate's views. Using just a few messages can alleviate that problem, but the risk is that the candidate will choose the wrong themes and have nothing to fall back on. They must decide whether to go on the attack. Early attacks may enable a candidate to define an opponent before the opponent can define the candidate. But they can also backfire if the press or public thinks the attacks are too negative. Later attacks may avoid backlash, but they may also be too late to make an impression. They must choose how often to broadcast certain messages. Repetition is a good thing because the more times people see a spot, the more likely it is to make an impression on them. Candidates must decide which messages are the most important and are therefore most worthy of repeating. In presidential races, they must choose a proper mix of national and local ad buys. This is not a dilemma during the nominating process because each primary election is basically local. However, in the general election it is quite important because of the Electoral College, where each state's votes are determined in the winner takes all. National ad buys reach a wider audience but are very expensive. They also hit all areas equally, regardless of the competitiveness in a given region. More localized ad buys allow candidates to account for regional differences, but doing the kind of market research necessary to generate the data needed to make those decisions can be time-consuming and expensive.(8)

5. Candidates face four key choices when designing ads and buying television time. In one sentence each, what are these four key choices? (4 points)

They need to decide how many issues they will emphasizes, whether or not to go on the attack, how often to broadcast certain messages and when to buy national or local ads (advertising strategies).

What is the consequence of negative press coverage for politicians?

They seek to avoid the news media, making it difficult for the media to cover. This leads to resentment and more negative coverage. It is a vicious cycle.

Candidates have become increasingly reliant on the Internet in their campaigns. What are two main uses of the Internet by candidates?

They use the Internet for the distribution of campaign information. They also use the Internet for fund-raising.

2. Why have the media become the mediators of elections, according to Patterson? (2 points)

This is because American political politics have become weaker. The first system means candidates appeal to the masses, and parties don't do this for the candidates. The parties need to utilize the press. The media helps guide the voter and figure out what decisions that they make. Journalists try and make themselves think they understand things more than the average person (Patterson's Chapter One).

4. What made the campaign of 1840 different from previous campaigns? What long-lasting traditions did it establish? (2 points)

This is the first time a campaign was advertised nationally. He had a slogan that people knew about. He gave himself an image of being similar to the people to connect with them. This is a tradition that was used with all of the people. This portrayed the other candidates to look snobbish and elite with all of their money. The 1840 election also established an array of campaign techniques—buttons, banners, and slogans—that dominated electoral politics for more than a hundred years. Now, of course, they have been eclipsed by television campaign tactics. The television campaign commercial, though, mass-markets candidates in much the same way.

12. What is the Bradley effect? Using the research presented in the commentary, do you think the Bradley effect is a real phenomenon? Be sure to support your answer with the research presented in the commentary. There is not a right or wrong answer, but you must support your answer. Answers should be no longer than three to four sentences. (3 points)

This is used to explain the differences between what the polls say and who wins. It says people don't want to seem like they are a racist, so they say something different than what they are going to vote. I do not agree with this theory. I believe polls can be wrong. I would also like to see how the questions were phrased (Interviewer Effects).

10. What are truth tests and what are Patterson's critiques of them? (3 points)

This is when the media tries to analyze politicians' advertisement to see how true they are or not. If this is done enough times, then it makes journalists think they have to find these stories. If this is the case, the truth can be stretched at times. It also makes journalists look like they are the know-all of everything (Patterson's Chapter Five).

Why are party conventions and candidates' debates not very useful for citizens who want to make an informed choice on Election Day?

Truth tests are the news media's analyses of the accuracy of campaign commercials. They provide a positive service when they correct inaccuracies. But they can also have negative effects. On the one hand, they give free airplay to the ads they are examining, thus reinforcing negative or inaccurate messages. On the other hand, they may analyze ads out of context or in too narrow a context, thus providing an unfair critique. They may also focus only on what is said, paying little attention to the visuals, which can be the most important part of the ad.

Character qualifications and professional qualifications 325

Two groups: those that are generally important in judging a person's character... Included in the first group are personally traits: integrity, style characteristics, and image characteristics (confidence). Professional qualifications at the presidential level: capacity to develop and execute effective foreign and domestic policies, the ability to mobilize public support, and a flair for administration. Professional qualifications are covered more by the media.

Values

Values are our feelings about how things ought to be. We can measure public opinion by means of polls.

Under what conditions are campaign messages and media most likely to impact vote choice? 334-335

Vote changes are most likely when voters pay fairly close attention to the media and are ambivalent in their attitudes toward the candidates. Campaign messages are most potent if they concern a major and unexpected event, such as a successful or disastrous foreign policy venture or corruption in high places, and when individuals find themselves in social settings where a change of attitude will not constitute deviant behavior. Campaign messages are also more potent when issues candidates emphasize are reflected in campaign coverage. These circumstances are fairly uncommon. Fears that televised campaigns can easily sway voters and amount to "electronic ballot box stuffing" are therefore unrealistic. Though small changes may be important in changing an election.

How jokes become part of image 319

Voters internalize this and carry it to the voting booth.

daytime talk shows

Want to engage with as many people as possible around the world. Try not to discuss politics because it is divisive.

issue ownership."

West writes that ads in political campaigns rely on "the principles of stereotyping, association, demonization, and code words to influence the electorate." By "stereotyping," West means commonly held views that people have of, for example, Republicans and Democrats. For instance, it is commonly believed that Republicans are stronger on foreign policy than Democrats, while Democrats are stronger on issues of social welfare. One scholar, political scientist John Petrocik, the former chair of the Mizzou political science department, did pioneering work on these kinds of stereotypes. Petrocik calls these kinds of beliefs by the public "issue ownership."

4. Why, according to Patterson, are journalists the problem when it comes to campaign promises by candidates? (2 points)

When they fail to keep campaign promises, Patterson argues, it is not necessarily because they lied. In some cases, candidates are constrained in following through on their promises by the interests that support their party and whose support they need. In their defense, Patterson argues that it doesn't make sense for candidates to make false promises. He argues that they have a stronger incentive to keep promises than to break them. He also argues that personal philosophies and causes guide candidate choices. They don't simply make promises to gain political points. From Patterson's perspective, journalists are the problem when it comes to promises. Since the outcome of promises is in the future, journalists are free to say nearly anything they want. How can anyone disprove the journalist's claim that a candidate has no intention of keeping his promise? As Patterson sees them, the news media are, as a rule, overwhelmingly negative. The root causes for this, according to Patterson were the scandals related to the Vietnam War and Watergate. These scandals created a generation of cynical journalists who took it personally they'd been lied to.

Patterson and McClure

Where Patterson and McClure were less impressed with television's power was in the coverage of issues, concluding that television news media outlets disdain issues and focus only on the campaign as strategy and sporting event. They found that, "The only noticeable effect of network campaign news is an increased tendency among voters to view politics in the same trivial terms that the newscasts depict it. Regular viewers of network news are likely to describe an election campaign as a lot of nonsense rather than a choice between fundamental issues."(9) However, when it came to television ads, they were more accepting of an impact. They wrote that campaign advertisements were an effective tool for educating voters, concluding, "But people do come to understand better where the candidates stand on election issues from watching televised political commercials. Although commercials are surely full of their own nonsense, blatant exaggerations, and superficial symbolism, presidential candidates do make heavy use of hard issue information in their advertising appeals."(10)

Based on the studies discussed in the commentary, does negative advertising seem most likely to stimulate or decrease voter participation in elections?

While there are some studies, such as Iyengar and Ansolabehere, suggest that negative ads depress voter turnout, most of the recent studies show that negative advertising has a positive impact on voter turnout.

demagoguery

he makers of political ads use the principles of stereotypes, association, condemnation, demonization, and subliminal imagery to influence the public. Taken together, these tactics might best be referred to as demagoguery, which means making appeals to the public that play on emotions, common prejudices, and fears.

argutainment

he talk and news/talk formats are popular among radio listeners largely because Americans spend a lot of time in their cars. There should be no doubt that political talk radio is, primarily, an entertainment medium. They broadcast because people want to be entertained. Two Canadian political scientists, Saurette and Gunster, coined the term "argutainment" for political talk radio.(1)

The Great Dictator

in which he tried to send a warning about Adolf Hitler to America. Released in 1940, the movie featured Chaplin playing two roles: A Hitler-like dictator and a Jewish barber. As Ross notes, the movie "...served as a visual wakeup call for the many Americans who cared little about Hitler's persecution of the Jews."(21) At the end of the movie, Chaplin makes a speech at a rally as the Jewish barber, taking a stage meant for the Hitler-like character.as an internationalist in what was then a hyper-isolationist nation....What Chaplin viewed as actions in defense of democracy, others saw as part of a media conspiracy led by Jews to force the United States into war (Chaplin was often accused in the media and in FBI reports of being Jewish, or at least half Jewish)."(23)

era of the permanent campaign

in which politicians are always either running for office or announcing their intention to run for office, the media focus on presidential campaigns up to two years before the election and attach great significance to relatively minor political events such as the Iowa Republican Straw Poll.

town hall meetings

in which the candidate can control the discussion by taking questions that are often rehearsed in advance from an audience that is often stacked with supporters. First used by Richard Nixon, as we discussed in Lesson 5, these events attract television coverage while allowing candidates to present their views without having to defend or explain them.

No news consumer needs hunger for info in the internet age 331

Primary coverage thin but high volume 331

Why scholars give media lower grades than citizens 330-331

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