9. Media divides Flashcards
what 2 primary areas of concern with big tech does Gosh identify?
- content policy problems (how to regulate hate speech, calls for violence, explotation, misinforation/disinformation)
- systemic economic problems (business models prioritie the collection of personal data for profit, the content that has most engagement is contreversial, extreme . economic problems create and worsen some of the content policy problems)
what is agenda setting?
telling the audience what to talk/think about. decide which stories are worth focusing on
with os much news and info available to use, interest in politics is now correlate with political knowledge ____ than in the past. why?
more
it was harder to seek out more political/news content in the past for the highly interested, and also a little harder to avoid it in the past (couldn’t simply change the channel to something non-news related, for example)
does being exposed to competing views moderate our own veiws?
no thinks Klein
for the most engage and knowledgable, exposure to competing views can make them more certain of their own (likely bc they can draw on a greater reserve of their own knowledge to refute the competing view)
what motto describes the selection process for news stories
if it bleeds it leads
when did strategists start to notice that the amount of true swing voters there were was decreasing
around 2000
how did the decrease in swing voters impact campaigning? (example)
in 2000 bush ran as compassionate conservative but in 2004 appealed to partisans instead. paid off for him in 2004
bush v kerry in 2004 was much more ideological
What is the difference between purists and pragmatists? and what is there significance? (Klein)
- purists = extreme and base of the party. they are more liekly to give to an individual candidate. this has a polarising effect overall
- pragmatists = appealing to moderates
- when you limit contributions to the party, people give to individual candidates. this rewards political pursists over the pragmatists as purist voters are the ones who give directly to candidates unlike more moderate people.
what does panagopoulos argue about campaign strategies?
- partisan campaign strategies in US presidential elections have shifted in recent years to reflect a growing emphasis on base mobilisation compared to persuading independent, undecided or swing voters…especially since 2000
- pushes us to more extreme politics bc relying on intense supporters rather than moderateds
who was the guy that got donations after screaming “you lie” during obama speech
joe wilson
what does cross pressures mean?
where a candidate or a message plays to traits or attitudes that cut across partisan divides (e.g. Biden appealing to obth the base and independents and moderate reps)
what does Lenz argue in “follow the leader” ?
voters rarely shift their votes to the politician whose position best agrees with their own.
citizens first pick a politician and then adopt that politician’s policy views. in other words, they follow the leader.
what is an example of follow the leader?
NAFTA
lots of democrats now think it is good, GOP think its bad even though prior to 2003 they felt pretty similar about it.
a greater percentage of republicans in congress actually voted for it than dems despite it being under the clinton administration.
Who increasingly sets the party agenda and signals the major stances of the party? why?
the president and presidential candidates
- longer campagin cycles mean more news coverage for presidential poltics, sometimes eating into coverage of state/local issues
- growing executive means more power for the president, raising the stakes of presidential elections, and giving more power to presidents/presidential candidates in defining their parties
Is more info the answer to political bias and groupthink?
no, more info and knowledge tends to make us better at arguing for our side, but not necessarily better at weighing all the availabel evidence
