Public Opinion and the Mass Media

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Public Opinion and the Mass Media
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Appetizer

• Name and describe four types of propaganda we
  talked about last week.

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Four Types

• Endorsement
• Name-Calling
• Glittering Generalities
• Bandwagon

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Objectives

• 4.04 Demonstrate active methods of promoting and
  inhibiting change through political action.
• 4.06 Describe the benefits of civic participation
• 4.08 Participate in civic life, politics, and/or
  government.

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Public Opinion

• Public opinion includes the ideas and attitudes
  that most people hold about elected officials,
  candidates, government, and political issues.
• Presidents and candidates know that they need the
  peoples support to carry out their programs.
  This includes members of the general population
  and Congress.

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Public Opinion

• The Public opinion is not uniform or the same.
• Americans rarely agree on issues.

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Factors that influence Public Opinion

• Personal Background
• Mass Media
• Public Officials
• Interest Groups

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Personal Background

• Peoples economic and social background can
  affect a persons public opinion.
• Age -Residency
• Gender
• Income
• Race
• Religion
• occupation

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The Mass Media

• Media that communicates to the masses through
  radio, newspapers, magazines, recordings, movies,
  and books.
• Mass Media has a major influence on public
  opinion.
• The media provides images and political
  information that is delivered directly to the
  masses.
• The way that the media covers major events or
  issues can play a strong part in swaying public
  opinion.

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Public Officials

• Public Officials
• Candidates, Office Holders, they can swing public
  opinion.
• They try to bring the issues to the masses in
  hopes of persuading them to support their point
  of view.

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Interest Groups

• Interest groups work at influencing public
  opinion by trying to persuade people to see their
  point of view.

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Components of Public Opinion

• Direction
• Intensity
• Stability

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Direction

• Is a topic positive or negative?

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Intensity

• The Strength of a Given Issue
• Most Americans do not have intense positions on
  most political topics.
• However, when they do they tend to vote against
  or for a candidate or work in an election
  campaign or participate in a demonstration

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Stability

• The firmness of the publics opinion.
• For example, peoples opinions on civil rights
  are more stable than their beliefs on political
  issues and candidates.

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Measuring Public Opinion

• Public Opinion is measured in a variety of ways.
• Through Election Results
• Through Public Opinion Polls
• Pollsters are specialists who collect poll data.
  They also interpret and analyze the data.

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Pollsters

• Pollsters have to be careful how they word their
  questions.
• Poll questions need to be as unbiased and fair as
  possible.
• Note that there is usually some bias in questions
  it doesnt matter how unbiased they try to be.

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Before we get to the media

• Do you think more people get their news from
  electronic sources or printed media such as
  newspapers?

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The Mass Media

• The Mass Media is involved in everything and
  anything related to politics, issues, and media.

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Print Media

• Print Media consists of
• Newspapers
• Books
• Letters
• Magazines
• Journals

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Electronic Media

• Radio
• Television
• Internet
• Movies

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Media Outlets

• The majority of media outlets are private
  businesses and are in it to make money.
• Managers, Editors decide what stories to run or
  what programs to run to attract more viewers,
  readers, and listeners
• The larger the audience, the more money the
  business is likely to make.

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Some Media Facts

• Television is considered to be the most important
  medium to convey political ideas and issues to
  the people
• Over 98 of homes today have at least one
  television
• Most people rely on the TV for their news and
  information.

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Newspapers

• More than 70 percent of adults read newspapers
  according to your book.
• However, the real number is around 50-60
• For those that do read, they usually spend three
  to four hours a week on them.
• Newspapers and magazines present more in depth
  coverage of current events than the TV.

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The Internet

• The Internet is one of the fastest growing media
  outlets in the world today.
• People can get more information from the net than
  reading a newspaper or watching brief TV reports.
• The Internet gives people faster access to news
  information.

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Medias Impact on Politics and Government

• The Media has a strong influence on political
  issues and public opinions.
• They can influence which issues are the most
  important while others go unnoticed.
• For example, Gas Prices and the Environment.
• Vocab. Alert Public Agenda issues that are
  considered to be the most significant by public
  officials

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Influence on Candidates and Public Officials

• The media makes it possible for candidates who
  may not consider running for office, actually
  run.
• Candidates do not necessarily have to have prior
  political experience to run.
• For example, Ronald Reagan

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Elected Officials

• Elected officials want the media to portray them
  as hardworking individuals.
• They also rely on the media to communicate to the
  masses on political activities and dealings.

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The Double-Edged Sword

• Political Officials will use assistants such as
  press secretaries to get information to the
  people about what is going on in office.
• Sometimes information will leak out.
• Officials will secretly pass on or leak
  information, good or bad to the masses.
• This is a double edged sword since information
  can be good or it can be bad.

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Watchdog Role

• The Media can also serve as a watchdog for
  political activities.
• Journalists are hungry for scandals, corruption,
  or government waste.
• They want to share anything and everything
  related to a politicians public and private life.
• This not only affects an official but their
  family as well.

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Media and National Security

• Since 9/11 there has been a general need for
  information on National Security.
• However, there are some things that the
  government will do in order to protect
  intelligence information and limit information
  that the media can leak out to the people

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Terror Alert System

• Note, you will generally see the current
  terrorism threat level on the bottom scroll of
  most major cable news networks.

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Make a Quiz.

• Your assignment is to make a ten question quiz
  related to Chapter 11 which will be due at the
  end of the period.
• You may use Short-Answer, Multiple Choice, and
  Matching questions on your quiz or you can mix
  and match.
• Do not use True-False or Essay questions.

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Breakdown of the Chapter

• 11-1 Public Opinion
• 11-2 Mass Media
• 11-3 Propaganda and Interest Groups

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Agenda for Thursday

• Interest Groups (Warm-Up/Appetizer)
• and
• Intro to Law

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For Friday..

• Midpoint test!!!
• Law Continuation