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Chapter 6

Chapter 6. Public Opinion, Political Socialization and Media. Public Opinion. Aggregate of individual attitudes or beliefs shared by some portion of adult population No one public opinion; many different “publics” Key role in policymaking Source of power Helps candidates identify issues

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Chapter 6

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  1. Chapter 6 Public Opinion, Political Socialization and Media

  2. Public Opinion • Aggregate of individual attitudes or beliefs shared by some portion of adult population • No one public opinion; many different “publics” • Key role in policymaking • Source of power • Helps candidates identify issues • Sets limits on government action through public pressure

  3. Measuring Public Opinion • Opinion poll = method of systematically questioning small, selected sample of respondents deemed representative of total population • Simple random sample = each member of population has equal chance of being selected for sample • Most scientific; sample represents population’s diversity in demography and opinion

  4. Problems with Polls • “Snapshot in time” • Classic errors: presidential election polls (1948, Dewey beating Truman; 1980, Carter beating Reagan) • Sampling errors (e.g., biased samples, samples too small, etc.) • Question wording/influence of interviewer • Unscientific polls (Internet, phone-in, push polls) • High non-response rates

  5. Political Socialization • Process by which individuals acquire political beliefs, attitudes, and opinions • Agents/forces • Family • Education • Peers • Religion • Economic Status/occupation/class • Political Events • Opinion Leaders • Media/TV/Internet • Demography/Age/Gender

  6. Family • Most important agent • Communication and Receptivity • Parents communicate preferences to children • To please parents children receptive to their views • Important for party identification • Class poll: How many of us have followed in our parents’ footsteps when it comes to party identification?

  7. Education and Peers • Education • patriotism, structure of government, how to form positions on issues • more education, more likely interested in politics • Peers • most likely to shape political opinions when peer group is politically active

  8. Religion • Traditional view definite effect • Roman Catholics  more liberal • Protestants  more conservative • Jews  more liberal • More recent trends • Non-religious  very liberal socially; mixed economically • Protestants and Catholics vary socially and economically • Social conservatism among Christians • Degree of religious commitment • Conservative, evangelical, or fundamentalist

  9. SES/Class • Income strong predictor of liberalism or conservatism • Lower income • More likely to favor government action, benefit poor, promote economic equality • More likely to be socially conservative • More likely to be Democrat • Less likely to participate • Higher income • More likely to oppose government action or economic equality • More likely to be socially liberal • More likely to be Republican or Libertarian • More likely to participate • Socioeconomic status (SES) = best predictor of participation

  10. Political Events • Can shape people’s political attitudes • Generational effect = long-lasting effect of events of particular time on political opinions of those who came of age at that time • Great Depression • World War II • Vietnam War • 9/11?

  11. Media • Media = channels of mass communication • Newspapers, television, radio and Internet strongly influence public opinion • Certainly what to think about, known as agenda setting • Mainly private, for-profit corporations

  12. Demography • Region • South, Great Plains, and Rockies  Republican • West Coast and Northeast  Democratic • Residence (urban/suburban/rural) • Big cities  liberal and Democratic • Small communities  conservative and Republican • Ethnicity • African Americans more liberal • Whites  more conservative • Gender • Menmore likely to vote Republican • Women more likely to vote Democratic

  13. Political Process • Public opinion • Source of power • Identify key issues • Shape campaigns • Political culture = collection of beliefs and attitudes toward government and political process • Symbols and shared beliefs • Provides environment of support (trust, legitimacy) • Political trust = degree of trust in government and political institutions • Standard for evaluation of performance

  14. Media and Politics • Functions of Media • Entertainment • Reporting news • Identifying public problems • Setting public agenda = issues perceived by political community as meriting public attention and governmental action • Socializing generations • Providing political forum • Making profits • Enormous impact on politics

  15. Television • Most influential medium (primary source for 90% of Americans) • Big business • Increase in news-type programming • Influence on political process • Highly superficial, “Sound bites” • Narrowcasting

  16. Media and Campaigns • Advertising (very costly campaigns) • Negative advertising works • Reduces participation, increases cynicism • Management of news coverage • spin = interpretation favorable to candidate’s campaign • spin doctors = campaign tries to convince journalists of truth of favorable interpretation

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