Chapters 5 and 6. Public Opinion and Political Socialization & The Media. Rayyaan Usmani and Alex Janvrin

Transcription

1 Chapters 5 and 6 Public Opinion and Political Socialization & The Media Rayyaan Usmani and Alex Janvrin

2 Public Opinion and the Models of Democracy Public opinion The collective attitudes of citizens concerning a given issue or question. Opinion Polling Interviewing a sample of citizens to estimate public opinion as a whole. Necessary part so our government can be responsive to the wants of the nation. Bills passed by house aren t all intended to reflect the opinion of a majority of citizens, that is because we don t live in a full democracy, and public opinion is only one factor when it comes to law making.

3 Models of Democracy Majoritarian democracy The government should do what a majority of the public wants. Pluralist democracy Pluralists recognize that subgroups within the public express opinions on specific matters, and even if in the minority, should be entitled to have their voice heard. Models of democracy make different assumptions about public opinion. The majoritarian model assumes that a majority of the people holds clear, consistent, opinions on government. The pluralist model assumes that the public is often uninformed about specific issues, and opinion polls frequent support their claim.

4 Distribution of Public Opinion Bimodal Distribution Bimodal distributions occur when people have strong opinions but are equally split, an example is gay marriage, people are either strongly for or against while very few are neutral, hence the shallow middle.

5 Distribution of Public Opinion Normal Distribution A symmetrical distribution that is strongly centralized with few outliers. Often seen with political identification, a majority will identify closed to moderate with few people identifying themselves as Extremely liberal/conservative.

6 Distribution of Public Opinion Stability of Distribution Is a distribution that shows little change over time. Public opinion on important issues can change, but it is sometimes difficult to distinguish a true change in opinion from a difference in the way a question is worded. When different questions on the same issue produce similar distributions of opinion, the underlying attitudes are stable.

7 Political Socialization A complex process through which individuals become aware of politics, learn political facts, and form political values.

8 Agents of Early Socialization These are the two core ideals of our source of political socialization. Primary principle states, What we learn first, is learned best Structuring principle states, What we learn first structures our future learning.

9 Agents of Early Socialization Family Parent child relationships teach children a wide range values of ranging from social, moral, religious, economic, and lastly political, these all help shape future opinions. One of the most politically important things that most children learn from their parents is party identification. Children learn party identification in much the same way they do religion. Children tend to imitate their parents, when parents share the same religion, children are very likely to follow them in the same religion, rather than an entirely new one, this is the same for politics.

10 Agents of Early Socialization School Schools have an influence on political learning that is equal to or greater than that of the parents. New curricula in many secondary schools emphasize citizens rights in addition to their responsibilities, high schools also attempt to build good citizens. Also many secondary schools offer more explicit political content in their curricula, including courses in recent US history, civics, and American government. Political learning at the college level can be much like that in high school, or it can be quite different. The degree of difference is greater if professors encourage their students to question authority.

11 Distribution of Public Opinion Skewed Distribution When one sided is heavily favored it produced a Skewed Distribution, an example is the death penalty, where a majority responded in favor producing the steep left side, and much less responded against it, producing the shallow right side.

12 Agents of Early Socialization Community and Peers Community and peers are the finally major group of influence. You community is the people of all ages with whom you come in contact with because they live or work near you. Peers are your friends, classmates, and coworkers. The makeup of a community has a lot to do with how the political opinions of its members are formed. Homogeneous communities are those whose members are are similar in ethnicity, race, religion, or occupation - can exert strong pressures on both children and adults to conform to the dominant attitude. For both children and adults, peer groups sometimes provide a defense against community pressures. Adolescent peer groups are particularly affect protection against parental pressures.

13 Social Groups and Political Values Each individual experiences a unique process of political socialization and forms a unique set of political values. Still people with similar backgrounds do share similar experiences, which means they tend to develop similar political opinions. Peoples backgrounds and values greatly affect their political values and the opinions they form.

14 Social Groups and Political Values Education Education increases people s awareness and understanding of political issues. Higher education also promotes tolerance of unpopular opinions and behavior and invites citizens to see issues in terms of civil rights and liberties. Income In many countries, differences in social class, based on social background and occupation, divide people in their politics. In the United States, the vast majority of citizens regard themselves as middle class. Yes wealth is consistently linked to opinions favoring a limited government role in promoting equality, less consistently to opinions about order. Those with lower incomes are more like to favor government guarantees of employment and living conditions.

15 Social Groups and Political Values Region In the past, difference in wealth fed cultural differences between these regions. In recent decades, however, the movement of people and wealth away from the Northeast and Midwest to the Sunbelt states in the South and Southwest has equalized the per capita income of the various regions. Which has overall decreased the political bias in each region. Ethnicity/Race From the Civil War through the civil rights movement of the 1960s, African Americans fought to secure basic political rights such as the right to vote. Initially mobilized by the Republic Party - the party of Lincoln - following the Civil War, African Americans also forged strong ties with the Democratic Party during the new Deal Era. Today African Americans and a majority of other minority groups are still more likely to support liberal candidates and identify with the Democratic Party.

16 Social Groups and Political Values Religion Since the 1930s and 40s, the religious makeup of the United States has remained fairly stable. Today, 56% of the population are Protestant or non-catholic Christian, 22% are Catholic, 13% profess no religion, and the rest is made up of various others. For many years there have been stronger differences in political opinions of Protestants, Catholics, and Jews. Protestants were more conservative than catholics, and Catholics tended to be more conservative than jews. Gender Men and women differ in respect to their political opinions on a broad array of issues. Women are more likely than men to favor government actions to promote equality. Men and women differ less on the abortion issues. Surveys also show that women are consistently more supportive than men are of both affirmative action and government spend for social programs.

17 From Values to Ideology Although media frequently uses the terms liberal and conservative, some people think these terms no longer relevant to American Politics. Most people thought people described as liberal as someone who by definition is generous and someone who is conservative is someone who could be defined as fiscally responsible or tight. Ideological labels are technical terms used in analyzing politics, we get our ideology from a combination of our political socialization and our values.

18 The Quality of Ideological Thinking in Public Opinion Studies of the public s ideological thinking find that two themes run through peoples mind when they are asked how to describe liberals/conservatives. One theme associates liberals with change and conservatives with traditions. It corresponds to the distinction between liberals and conservatives on the exercise of freedom and the maintenance of order. The other theme has to do with equality. Conservatives are seen as putting a higher value on freedom at the loss of equality, while Liberals hold the principle of equality as a much more important issue.

19 Forming Political Opinions Political Knowledge In America today we have extremely high literacy rates and access to a wide array of colleges, of which 2/3s of Americans enter. Along with readily available access to the internet and constant media coverage we are capable of keeping ourselves up with politics 24/7. As much access as people have to politics, the public shows less knowledge on some matters that are critical to public policy. According to a Gallup Poll in late 2011 almost 70% of Americans believed the crime rate to be getting worse, when in actuality it has decreased by 6% since 2009.

20 Costs, Benefits, and Cues The self-interest principle states that people choose what benefits them personally. This plays an obvious role in forming political opinions because people will choose what benefits them the most. In certain cases, where individuals are unable to determine personal costs or benefits they hold no opinions, this tends to be true for things such as foreign policy. Here many people have no opinion, or their opinions are not firmly held are are likely to change quite easily given any new information. This can be seen in the public approval of the war in Iraq and of Bush s handling of the war varied with positive news such as Iraqi elections and negative news such as the number of military casualties.

21 Political Leadership Public opinion on specific issues is molded greatly by political leaders, journalists, and policy experts. Citizens with a favorable view of specific politicians are more likely to support their political agenda. Politicians routinely make appeals to the public on the basis of shared political ideology and self interest. They collect and share information about social trends, policy options, and policy implementation. Politicians are well aware that citizen understanding and support for an issue depends on its framing. In issue framing, politicians define the way that issues are presented, selectively invoking values or recalling history in the presentation.

22 The Media

23 The Development of Mass Media in the United States Communication - the process of transmitting information from one individual or group to another essential in a representative democracy Mass Communication - process by which information is transmitted to large, dispersed audiences

24 The Development of Mass Media in the United States (cont.) Mass Media: The means employed in mass communication Print media - communicate information through the publication of words and pictures on paper. Broadcast media - communicate information electronically, through sounds and images

25 The Development of Mass Media in the United States (cont.) Five prominent mass media uses: Newspapers Magazines Radio Television Internet

26 The Development of Mass Media in the United States (cont.) Newspapers 1775: 37 newspapers were publishing in the colonies 1880: 971 daily newspapers and 8,633 newspapers published in the United States 1960s: intense competition between big-city dailies nearly disappeared But news readership is actually up.

27 The Development of Mass Media in the United States (cont.) Magazines Cover news in more specialized manner Attentive Policy Elites: Leaders who follow news in specific policy areas Two-step flow of communication: The process in which a few policy elites gather information and then inform their more numerous followers, mobilizing them to apply pressure to the government

28 The Development of Mass Media in the United States (cont.) Magazines Circulation declined as much as newspapers have US News & World Report

29 The Development of Mass Media in the United States (cont.) Radio 1920: Continuous radio broadcasting began Four networks transformed radio into a national medium by linking thousands of local stations fireside chats by F.D.R Present: nearly fifteen thousand licensed broadcast radio stations

30 The Development of Mass Media in the United States (cont.) Television Early anchors of television network news programs came to the medium already famous through radio experiences TV exploded 2012: 97% of U.S households had a television Claim the biggest news audience of all media, besides the Internet Cable news analogous to early newspapers

31 The Development of Mass Media in the United States (cont.) Internet Rapidly becoming a key source of information for the American people Especially popular for people under age of 30 Some websites provide extensive coverage of political issues and policymakers Politico.com Huffington Post

32 Private Ownership of the Media United States: Broadcast media privately owned, except for 300 public television stations and 900 public radio stations

33 Private Ownership of the Media (cont.) Consequences Media more dependent on advertising revenues to cover costs and make a profit Must appeal to audiences Entertainment overshadows news content Primary criterion = newsworthiness: The degree to which a news story is important enough to be covered in the mass media

34 Private Ownership of the Media (cont.) Consequences (cont.) Led to market-based journalism: Both reporting news and running commercials geared to a target audience defined by demographic characteristics NBC, CBS, ABC have historically dominated political coverage Experiencing viewership decline Succumbed to infotainment: Mix of information and diversion oriented to personalities or celebrities, not linked to the day s events, and usually unrelated to public affairs

35 Government Regulation of the Media Broadcast media subject to most government regulation Radio and Television broadcasters must obtain a license from the government because the public owns the airwaves Federal Radio Commission

36 Government Regulation of the Media (cont.) Federal Communications Commission (FCC): An independent federal agency that regulates interstate and international communication by radio, television, telegraph, cable, and satellite.

37 Government Regulation of the Media (cont.) FCC Police Acts as a police agency of the airwaves Fines broadcasters, revokes broadcaster s license

38 Government Regulation of the Media (cont.) Media Doctrines Equal time rule - states that broadcasters must provide equal broadcast time to all candidates for a particular office Right of rebuttal - requires broadcasters to provide an opportunity for candidates to respond to criticisms made against them Fairness Doctrine - A broadcaster who airs a controversial program must provide time to air opposing views Not enforced since 1985

39 Functions of the Mass Media Immense power within the American democracy Shapes how Americans perceive the world Performs a number of functions important to the democratic process

40 Reporting the News Majority of people must trust the media to provide them with information Democracy requires citizens to be informed because they must be able to make educated voting choices

41 Interpreting and Presenting the News Gatekeepers: Media executives, news editors, and prominent reporters who direct the flow of news Select what topics go through the gate During elections, horse-race journalism: Election coverage by the mass media that focuses on which candidate is ahead rather than on national issues More people want coverage of the candidates view on issues

42 Interpreting and Presenting the News (cont.) Media Events: A situation that is so newsworthy that the mass media are compelled to cover it. Candidates take advantage of these situations

43 Setting the Political Agenda Journalists must choose which stories are most newsworthy Helps determine the most important issues Political Agenda: A list of issues that need government attention Agenda setting is crucial --> shapes which issues will be debated in public

44 Socializing the Citizenry Media plays a big role in socializing people to American society, culture, and politics Much of what people learn about American culture comes from the media People are worried that young people are exposed to too much violence in the media, knowing the effect it will have on children s views and development

45 Evaluating the Media in Government Is Reporting Biased? Critics of modern journalism/citizens skeptical of the news Presence of opinionated journalism has proliferated Nation s outstanding newspapers can display biases

46 Evaluating the Media in Government (cont.) Contributions to Democracy Two-way communication important Government to citizens Citizens reaction to government actions Polling citizens about political events, elections More accurate knowledge of public opinion

47 Evaluating the Media in Government (cont.) Effects on Freedom, Order, and Equality Play important role in advancing equality Civil Rights Movement Able to report whatever they wish, whenever they wish erodes efforts to maintain order Freedom of press is a noble and important value in the United States

48 AP Free Response Question (43 days away from AP Exam) a. Define Policy Agenda. b. Explain how the national news media engage in agenda setting. c. Explain the primary reason why the president has an advantage over Congress in gaining media attention. d. Explain the difference in viewing patterns of older and younger age-groups, and explain the change in viewing habits from 1974 to 2002 for all age-groups. e. Describe one implication for presidents in their use of the media to promote their objectives to the public.

49 Define Policy Agenda A policy agenda is a set of issues, problems, or subjects that gets the attention of/is viewed as important by people involved in policymaking (government officials, government decisionmakers).

50 Explain how the national news media engage in agenda setting. Raise awareness, provide information, draw attention, demonstrate the importance or consequences of the problem, or get the public s attention. Get the attention of government/policymakers

51 Explain the primary reason why the president has an advantage over Congress in gaining media attention. The president is one person, while Congress is composed of many members. An explanation of how that fact gives the president an advantage over Congress in gaining media attention. The president speaks with a single voice, while Congress has many voices. The president represents the nation; members of Congress represent states/districts.

52 Explain the difference in viewing patterns of older and younger age-groups, and explain the change in viewing habits from 1974 to 2002 for all age-groups. Young people view less TV news than older people/ Older people view more TV news than younger people. People in all age categories viewed less TV news in 2002 than they did in 1974.

53 Describe one implication for presidents in their use of the media to promote their objectives to the public. Presidents must rely on alternative media to gain the attention of the public. Presidents purposely target older viewers through the use of nightly news programs. The nightly news is not as effective in promoting the president s agenda as it used to be.

54 quizid=cdae707a-b0124ed7-9b82-4b04e1cd3809 PrizesFirst: 3 of their choice Second: 2 of the remaining Third-Fifth: 1 of the remaining (Will defending champion Jacob Elafandi take home gold once again?)