PS4120 Exam 2 Questions
According to the commentary, what is a "compound question," and why is it a bad type of question to include in a survey?
A compound question is one that poses two questions or talks about two issues but only asks for one response. This is a bad type of question to include in a survey because you can never be sure which issue or question the respondent was answering.
According to the commentary, what is a "nonattitude?" Why do nonahtudes have a negative impact on poll results? Explain your answer in two to three sentences.
A nonattitude is an uninformed answer given to a survey question. Nonattitudes have a negative impact on poll results because it will produce a misleading portrait of public opinion when people answer questions on things they do not truly know or care about.
Republicans have been fighting against Obamacare for a long time. When the program was being debated in Congress in 2009, strategist Frank Luntz proposed ways for Republicans to "frame" the proposals. First, define framing. Second, give an example of the kind of framing Luntz suggested Republicans use when talking about health care policy.
Framing refers to the context in which a news event is places. Luntz suggested that Republicans not appear to be against the reform or changes in the health care system, but to frame the proposed solution as just another level of bureaucracy between you and your doctor. He knew that if they used the correct language around the issue to get the public to be against it, they would be successful.
According to the commentary, what does the phrase "going public" mean?
Going public is the tactic used by Presidents in the modern era to seek public support for policy initiatives rather than to political actors in Washington. This can be done by appealing directly to voters in many ways such as speeches, campaign rallies, or public appearances.
According to the commentary, going public almost always ends up in ______, ______, and ______.
Gridlock, Stagnation and Infuration
According to the article by Searles,(Toff?) what does she mean when she writes that "polls are more poin-llism than photorealism?"
He is saying that each polls results are meant to be observed from a distance. One should not take these results as actual representations of public sentiment.
According to the commentary, what is the overall perspective of your professor about polls?
His overall perspective is that polls leave much to be desired and that they do not help the political process much in the United States.
According to the textbook, it is crucial for the Supreme Court to receive positive coverage in the news media. In a sentence or two, explain the author's argument.
The author argues that this is crucial because the court lacks the power and institutional structure to enforce its decisions and the public needs to hold it in high regard in order for them to accept their decisions.
What is the subject matter of the case McCreary County, Kentucky, et al., v. ACLU? What did the Supreme Court decide in this case? Why did it reach this conclusion?
The case of McCreary County, Kentucky, et al., v. ACLU was the same question of the previous case but in displays in public schools and courthouses. In this case, the court found that an observer would conclude that the government was endorsing religion. Breyer explained that this was found unconstitutional because the commandments were posted to send a specific religious message.
According to the commentary, as President, Richard Nixon engaged in priming of his image. What kinds of characteristics did he decide not to bother with trying to prime? What characteristics did he emphasize instead?
The characteristics that Nixon focused on priming were his stability and competence because he wanted to stir up confidence when American's thought of him. He did not bother with trying to prime images of him being warm and fuzzy because he knew the American people would not buy it.
According to the commentary, is the Trump administration more or less open and transparent than the Obama administration? Explain your answer. Finally, what argument does the commentary make about presidential use of social media?
The commentary calls the transparency of the Obama administration as "bad", and Trump's as "worse." This is not something to celebrate, because it causes a chain of behavior passed on to the next president because the previous one did the same. The commentary says that presidential use of social media does not mean that we are more informed, just that the president now has another outlet with which to appeal to the American people for support.
In the commentary, there is an extensive discussion about errors in the news media. What caution does the commentary offer about the dangers of thinking everything in the news media is inaccurate?
The commentary says that this is dangerous because if we view the media as an enemy of the people, then the only people that we get information from about policies and other issues come from the government who is making the changes. This leaves citizens in a representative democracy very open to manipulation.
According to the commentary, what is the definition of confidence level? Give an example of a confidence level.
The definition of confidence level is a measure of how much faith the researchers have that their results are accurate within the sampling error. Example - A 91 percent confidence level means that the researchers would find results within the sampling error in ninety-one out of one hundred times if they were to sample the population using the same sampling technique.
According to the commentary, what is the definition of sampling error? Give an example of a margin of error.
The definition of sampling error is the difference between the estimates obtained from the sample and the true population value. An example of margin of error; A poll shows that Sanders has the support of 82 percent of voters and Trump has 18 percent, with a sampling error of plus or minus 4 percent. This means that the percentage of people that support Sanders is 78 percent to 86 percent of voters and for Trump the true range is between 14 percent an 22 percent. (in my perfect world)
In their research, Lazarsfeld and Berelson concluded that the media don't have direct impact on people's opinions. Identify the name of the effect they found and explain what it means.
The effect that they found was called the "two-step" flow theory. Rather than the media directly influencing people's opinions, they believed that opinion leaders are intermediaries between the media and regular people. This is why they believed the media has "minimal effects" on public opinion because messages flow through opinion leaders to voters.
According to the textbook, there are four main presidential media strategies. In a sentence each, explain the four strategies.
The first and most important media strategy is presidents try to win reports' favor. This is not usually difficult for them because they are constantly surrounded by reporters who need news to earn their pay. The second, Is when presidents try to shape the flow of news to make good publicity more likely than bad publicity. The third media strategy is for presidents to pace and arrange their work scheduled to produce opportunities for favorable media coverage. The fourth tactic is to try to evade the news media altogether by publishing their news on government websites, with video news releases or through social media
The textbook discusses the impact of partisan media on political learning. What are two possible positive impacts of consuming partisan media on political learning, according to the summary on page 362?
The first possible positive impact of consuming partisan media on political learning is that they may provide an organizational framework for thinking about the event or issue being covered, which may foster better understanding. Other research suggests that partisan coverage may also contain more substantive information.
According to the textbook, members of which house of Congress get more media attention? What are the reasons for this difference?
The house that receives less media attention is the Senate because they did not follow the House's lead in allowing media to enter the chamber and cover important events. It was worried that they were fast becoming the invisible half of Congress. The House has very specific rules about the coverage allowed so that you cannot see the empty house floor or the people who aren't paying attention.
According to the commentary, what important policy issue was greatly harmed by politicians going public? Explain what happened the last time a major attempt was made to deal with this issue.
The issue that was greatly harmed by politicians going public was social security. This issue is now referred to as "the third rail of politics" because no one wants to touch it anymore. No one has attempted to deal with this since George W Bush's aggressive tactics in the early 2000s to try and reform it.
According to the commentary, however, there was a way in which some crucial polls were quite inaccurate in 2016. What kind of polls were inaccurate? In what way were they inaccurate? When trying to predict the outcome of a presidential election, what is critically important to remember?
The kinds of polls that were inaccurate were the state by state polls, many of which predicted that Hillary would win easily. When trying to predict the outcome of a presiden-al election It is important to remember that it is a race in all 50 states, so you have to look at each race to see who will win each state and win overall.
According to the commentary, what went wrong with the Literary Digest poll of 1936? What changes did this bring about in public opinion polling?
The magazine predicted the presidential election wrong for the first time in many years. This was because they took the sample from motor vehicle registrations and phone books. The only people with phones and cars at this time aPer the Great Depression were the very wealthy. The changes that this brought about were that they started using random digit dialing.
According to the commentary, scholars of public opinion polling oPen compare a probability sample to a blood test. Explain what they mean when they use this analogy.
The meaning of this analogy is that you don't need to sample the whole population to get a good representation of it, just like a doctor doesn't need to test all of the blood in your body to get a good representation of what it is like.
According to the commentary, what is a question order effect? Give an example of question order affecting the results of a survey.
A question order effect is the idea that reversing or changing the order of questions will prompt people to answer them differently. One example was in a poll about the support for same sex marriage versus civil unions. They found that the immediate preceding context of a question about gay marriage caused respondents to change their answers significantly.
According to the commentary, it is probably wrong to give too much praise to the administration of Barack Obama for being transparent to the news media and public. In two to three sentences, explain the commentary's argument about how Obama wanted to be perceived versus how he should be perceived when it comes to transparency.
Barack Obama came into office and promised to be more open to public scrutiny and creating an unprecedented openness in Government. The commentary argues that although he was perceived this way, it is absolutely not the truth. The Obama Administration broke the record for denying FOIA requests made by media organizations and citizens. They held this record for two years in a row.
In a maximum of two sentences, define the terms "correlation" and "causality." In a third sentence, explain which one is more valuable for explaining things scientifically.
Correlation means that two things occur at the same time, gas prices rising at the same time as bike sales increase. Causality means that one thing causes another to occur, bike sales increase because of rising gas prices. Causality is more valuable for explaining scientific studies because it leaves little ambiguity in the conclusions researchers make.
In the ar-cle by Searles, what ways, according to the scholar Crespi, are "high quality" repor-ng of poll results and journalistic practice at odds with each other?
Crespi believes journalists face daily time and space constraints and oPen work in newsrooms without sufficient investment in polling opera-on and expertise. At the same time, reporters blaming the polling industry for election coverage that missed the mark is counterproductive.
According to the excerpt of FDR's court packing fireside chat in the commentary, what metaphor does FDR use to describe the federal government? What is the Supreme Court doing wrong, according to FDR?
FDR uses the metaphor of the American form of Government as a three horse team, being led by the American people. According to FDR, the Court had been acting more as a policy-making body than a judicial body. He accused them of complete disregard for their constitutional limitations.
Do you think attempts to study the news media for ideological bias are worth doing?
I absolutely think a_empts to study the news media for ideological bias are worth doing, but only to see its effects and to find ways to try and prevent it. I have no clue how this could be done considering no one wants heavy regulation of journalists and there is no clear way to do that at this point in time. We know that the media is so influential in American society and it will be interesting to con*nue to see how this will affect future generations.
In the conclusion of the article by Toff, he raises two concerns about polling and its future. In a sentence or two for each, state the two concerns she raises.
In the article, Toff says the first concern is that researchers need to more carefully figure out what to ask respondents as a matter of sampling methodology and sources of error. This is because in 2016, a focus on stated vote choice and the candidates low favorability ratings across the electorate masked the public's uncertainty about its choices. The second concern is that polls are helpful of characterizing averages, but we increasingly live in a world of segmented publics, targeted advertising, and personalized messaging. Surveys therefore require larger subsamples to get a well represented sample.
What is the subject matter of the case Van Orden v. Perry? What did the Supreme Court decide in this case? Why did it reach this conclusion?
In the case Van Orden v. Perry, the court decided whether or not to allow a statue of the ten commandments at the Texas State Capitol. The court ruled against Orden in this case, allowing the monument to stand. The court was split in this case and Breyer was the swing vote. Breyer concluded that in this case, the commandments were posted primarily to reflect their place in Western legal tradition, and not to send a specific religious message. That was the key difference for him.
According to the commentary, the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court was ultimately withdrawn by following the advice of a newspaper columnist. In three to four sentences, explain what happened
In the case of Harriet Miers, she was appointed by Bush but heavily criticized for her inexperience and speculation about their friendship. A columnist wrote an article describing in his opinion, the best exit strategy for both politicians to be able to save face. Soon after, Miers withdrew her appointment and both politicians issued statements that included language very similar to that of the column written by the journalist. Many view this as one prominent example of journalists influencing politicians.
According to the commentary, one reason courts are hard to cover is because they make complicated decisions that reporters aren't always able to interpret. Explain the embarrassing things that happened to members of the press when the Supreme Court announced its decision in NFIB v. Sebelius.
In the case of NFIB v. Sebelius, the members of the press reported initially that the court found the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional, which was not true. This was because the majority had overturned the major foundation on which the bill was based, but there were other constitutional justifications for it as well. Reporters did not read or pay full attention to the rest of the opinion and ran with it, which was a mistake.
According to the commentary, in order to avoid controversy at confirmation hearings, which are televised to the world on cable news channels, Supreme Court nominees adopt a strategy similar to that used by Justice Sonia Sotomayor in her hearings. In two to three sentences, explain Sotomayor's hearing strategy.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor's hearing strategy was determined to not answer any questions about controversial subjects. She would find different ways to not answer those types of questions while also demonstrating her knowledge of legal precedents. She frequently reminded senators she would keep an open mind about each case that she would hear. She was successful with this tactic of navigating the confirmation process.
According to the commentary, what reasons do many scholars give when they argue that JFK was the first television president?
Many scholars argue that JFK was the first television president because he always looked very well put together on TV and understood methods of making sure of that. He would test his clothes with the black and white screen, stay tanned, and apply stage makeup. JFK also came across as very presidential, but still a regular guy on TV which was hard to achieve. His wife Jackie also helped aide his image as she was young and beautiful and they looked good together.
What is the name of the media effect McCombs and Shaw studied? In a sentence or two, explain what they discovered.
McCombs and Shaw were hoping to prove that the media tells us what to think about and not what to think in their studies. They focused on the key issues in the 1968 elections and found that the content of the media coverage reflected what voters believed to be issues of high value at that time.
According to the textbook, what is the "lifeblood of politics?" Why do the authors argue this is the case?
Media coverage is the lifeblood of politics because it shapes the perceptions that form the reality on which political action is based. The authors argue this because media images define people and situations for nearly all participants in the political process and in doing so strongly affect the political environment.
According to the textbook, members of Congress try to use the media to accomplish several goals. In a sentence each, list and explain three of these.
Members of Congress try to use the media for multiple reasons. Members use their media image to create favorable images for themselves and their pet political projects. They also try to shape the debate around their policy proposals in a way that will help them be passed. Members of Congress also utilize the media to send messages to other political actors, interest groups, or the White House.
The textbook argues that there is a realization of interdependence between members of Congress and the news media. What is this interdependence and what does each side get out of it?
Members of Congress with legislative goals want coverage to provide publicity for their legislative proposals. Members with reelection goals want positive image coverage and on-air opportunities to claim credit for their policy and political successes. Journalists and news orgs are beholden to their preferences, tastes of audiences and norms of journalism. The media does not produce ideal coverage of legislators and their policies.
According to the commentary, who is Merrick Garland? What happened to Merrick Garland in 2016 that put him in the center of a great deal of media coverage and political controversy? Limit your answer to three to four sentences.
Merrick Garland was President Barack Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court aber Justice Antonin Scalia passed. In 2016 Sen. Mitch McConnell would not allow any hearings to be held to confirm him, although it is speculated he would not have passed the majority Republican Senate anyway. Republicans held out until the election for Trump to appoint his own nominee.
According to the textbook, there are "major qualitative differences" between the media/ Congressional relationship and the media/presidential relationship. In a two to three sentences, explain the differences.
Neither Congress nor the media need the services of the other as much as the president needs the press. The media can afford to alienate some legislators without losing direct access to congressional news. For the most part, legislators can ignore national publicity and rely instead on their own districts and local news.
According to the textbook, what is one consequence of Congress failing to act when it comes to making policy for the media industry?
One consequence of Congress failing to act when it comes to making policy for the media industry is that there may be no diversification in programs if Congress had not created the FCC to regulate radio. It says that Congress has barely regulated cable tv since 1996 and that the control is left to state and local governments.
According to the commentary, the Richard Nixon and his administration also did much more than previous administrations with regard to the news media. In two or three sentences, explain what they did.
Nixon's media team also developed techniques that are still used by candidates for the presidency, such as town hall meetings. These meetings allow the campaign team and the candidate to control who is in the audience and essentially the questions that are asked, it is good publicity. They also made it a popular tactic to attack the press and brand it as liberally biased. This is still something that is used today by candidates to gain support from voters and rile up their base. This causes voters to not trust the media and then ultimately only get their information from the candidate or politician.
The textbook discusses the socialization of childhood and asserts that while studies used to find that TV didn't have much of a role in socialization, that has changed. List and explain two reasons why this has changed.
One reason why this has changed is because television has become much more pervasive, meaning it exposes children to a much broader array of images of their world. Another reason is that the earlier studies did not include all media influence unless it came through direct contact between the child and the media. This does not account for things like contacts with parents and teachers who convey media information to children.
According to the commentary, how did Saturday Night Live become involved in the presidential election of 1976? Explain your answer in three to four sentences.
Saturday Night Live featured its first presidential parody of Gerald Ford in 1975, where Chevy Chase played a very clumsy Ford. In good spirit, Ford went on the show in 1976 for an episode hosted by his press secretary. The episode actually turned out badly because it featured some very raunchy skits. In November 1976, SNL replayed Ford's pardon of Nixon and many scholars believe this had much to do with his loss to Carter in the 1976 election.
According to the textbook, social media give legislators a new way of gemng out their messages and speaking to constituents. However, it also argues "the use of these tools also brings risks." Briefly list and explain the risks.
Social media can make it more difficult for journalists to cover Congress, because all 535 members have the ability to say something different on their social media and this makes it difficult for news media to focus. There are certainly other consequences and benefits to social media, but this causes the coverage of Congress to be skewed which is not beneficial to the American people.
According to the commentary, at a minimum, what percentage of households in the United States don't have a landline phone? What impact does this have on the ability to conduct surveys? Explain your answer in three to four sentences maximum.
The CDC study found that 55 percent of American households had no landline service, as of late 2018. This makes conducting surveys more difficult because they can no longer random-digit dial as many people as they previously could, because they all have cellphones. A lot of people have made their cellphone numbers unlisted as well so they cannot be contacted, which directly impacts the sample by making it unrepresentative.
The textbook cites the case of Robert Blake as an example of the negative effects of the CSI effect. What is the CSI effect and what happened, specifically, in the Blake case? Your answer should not be more than four sentences in length.
The CSI effect is when viewers form their own opinions about how criminal cases should be handled based off shows like CSI and Forensic Files. Jurors apply the hyped forensic science observed in fictional shows to the real trials that they are asked to judge. In the case of Robert Blake, there was sufficient evidence to prove that he shot his wife. However, like one juror admitted, many were using high expectations for evidence set by crime shows they had watched. The Blake case jurors concluded that there was not enough proof, dismissing circumstantial evidence that should have yielded a conviction.
According to the textbook, how does the media cover Supreme Court decisions? What is the focus of the stories? What remains largely shrouded in mystery?
The media covers Supreme Court Decisions not by the individual Justice, but the decision as a whole. The focus of the stories is not on the individual justices because they do a very good job at being reclusive and not sharing with the public their decision making process. This is in part one of their major powers, their aura of mystery.
Describe two examples of how Richard Nixon used television to repair his image, according to the commentary.
The most famous instance in which Nixon used television to repair his image was the Checkers speech. Nixon's speech was designed to clear up concerns that he was in bed with lobbyists as a member of congress. Checkers was the name of the family dog given to him by a lobbyist, his daughters loved him and they were keeping it. The speech worked to keep Nixon on the ticket for Republican vice president. Another time Nixon used television to repair his image was when he went on a comedy show in 1968 on the campaign trail. He delivered the famous catchphrase "Sock it to me!" And it worked well in his favor. His opponent in that election, Hubert Humphrey, believed the response to that had much to do with his loss.
Following the 2016 election, there was a lot of discussion about the polls predicting the wrong outcome of the polls. We are going to have several questions about this. In this question, explain the way in which the polls were NOT wrong about 2016's presidential election.
The polls were not wrong in that they predicted Hillary Clinton winning, because she did. She won the popular vote by 2.5 million votes. The real clear politics average was Clinton by 3.3% and in reality it was 2.1%.
According to the commentary, which branch of government receives the most attention from the news media? In two to three sentences, explain two of the reasons discussed in the commentary about why this true.
The president is usually found to receive four or five times as many minutes of coverage as Congress, with the courts receiving the least. There are many reasons for this, one of them is that our government has become more presidency centered. Another reason for this is that there are structural issues that make covering Congress more difficult. When the media is tasked with following the actions and agenda of one person, such as the President, it is much easier.
What is the sleeper effect, as defined by Carl Hovland? What importance does this have for the current day?
The sleeper effect is a phenomenon in which people who get information from less credible sources will ini*ally discount that information, but over time will become more accepting of those ideas regardless of the source. I think this is important for current day because the spread of misinforma*on online is likely to be having this same effect on people, which is detrimental to society.
In the commentary, it is argued that one of the reasons members of Congress try to get the media's attention from the beginning of their careers is that they live in an era of the permanent campaign. In a sentence or two, define the term "permanent campaign."
The term permanent campaign, is the idea that politicians are constantly preparing for subsequent elections, even as they are taking office for the first time. Many new members complain about being forced to attend fund-raisers for their next election within a few weeks of taking office.
According to the textbook, the coverage of the Supreme Court is difficult for reporters. What are the reasons for this, according to the textbook?
The textbook argues that coverage of the Court is difficult for reporters because the justices usually announce multiple decisions on a single fay, forcing them to absorb vast opinions quickly, of both majority and dissenting opinions. Journalists are expected to do this without the help of the justices that wrote them. This does not mix well with the realities of the news business.
The commentary asserts that members of Congress no longer spend quiet time as apprentices before pushing for leadership and media attention. In the commentary, two politicians are discussed who, aUer very short careers in the Senate, ran for the presidency. In two or three sentences, describe the short career and presidential campaign of one of these two men.
The two politicians that the book discusses are former President Barack Obama and Sen. Ted Cruz. Obama served only two years in the senate, and was running for president during one of them. He came to national prominence for being the keynote speaker at the 2004 DNC. His platform extended well beyond his home state and allowed him to win the nations affection. He used the Senate as a platform for running for president. Ted Cruz is the other politician that the commentary mentions. Ted Cruz frequently gained national media attention during his time in office for being an outspoken critic of the Obama Administration. One stunt he got a lot of media coverage for was his 21 hour filibuster that focused on his opposition to ACA. Ted Cruz was elected to the Senate in 2012 and launched his candidacy for the presidency in 2016. He lost the nomination to Donald Trump, however.
According to the commentary, the scholar Jeffrey Tulis writes that there have been two stages of the presidency. In a sentence or two, describe the two stages.
The two stages of the president are #1, one in which restrictions were imposed on the president through the separation of powers. The second, current stage, is one in which presidents provide active and continuous leadership of public opinion.
The textbook offers a discussion of several cases that are classic examples of the press making errors in reporting decisions by the Supreme Court. List the case names and the topics for each case.
There were two landmark cases cited by the book. The cases were Engel v. Vitale (1962), which outlawed school prayer, and Baker v. Carr (1962), which invalidated many electoral district boundaries, stories that followed from journalists featured misleading headlines and serious errors.
According to the textbook, there are four permanent (standing) offices in the White House dedicated to press relations. List these four offices
These four offices are: the Press Office, the Office of Communications, the Office of Media Affairs, and Speechwriting.
According to the article by Searles, content analysis research on how media outlets cover poll results showed at least two significant tendencies. In a sentence or two for each, explain these two tendencies.
They found that much news coverage lacked mention of the sponsoring firm in 2016 study and a similar palern in the 2008 election. The other tendency is focusing on the nature of horse race coverage rather than reporting, they suggest that reporters use polls to scaffold the story rather than drive it.
According to the commentary, explain the concerns of those who oppose the broadcasting of criminal trials on television.
Those who have reservations about the broadcasting of criminal trials on television argue that trials have gone from being serious exercises of the criminal justice system to another form of entertainment designed to generate profits. They also argue that the televising of these trials has a negative impact on people's understanding of the justice system.
Why did Walter Lippmann argue that the news media must have an impact on people's opinions?
Walter Lippmann argued this because the media have to choose which stories to cover and which not to, and thus influence the topic of public conversation and the public aMtude of what is important.
According to the commentary, why did Woodrow Wilson feel that presidents should have a policy agenda and speak out about it?
Woodrow Wilson believed that the President is the only elected official with the entire nation as a constituency and that they should be active in the political process and serving the nation.
