Ch6 - The Media & Public Opinion in Texas

Question 1

What is special about newspapers in Texas?

Answer 1

Newspapers and Texas grew up together, as first newspaper was published days after Texas received independence from Mexico.

Question 2

Stanley McBrayer

Answer 2

Invented the offset press for newspaper printing in 1954, which saved the newspaper industry

Question 3

What were early newspapers in Texas writing about?

Answer 3

Their opinion of Sam Houston.

Question 4

What is the oldest surviving newspaper in Texas?

Answer 4

The Galveston News
Began continuous publication in 1843, raged against Houston’s pro-Union stance

Question 5

Partisan press

Answer 5

newspapers and other media that reported a single viewpoint in an effort to persuade readers.

Continued thru Reconstruction

Question 6

What moved emphasis to reporting straight news in newspapers?

Answer 6

In the end of 19th century, the development of large news orgs like Associated press allowed newspapers to share costs by sending one reporter to cover different stories.

Question 7

Newspapers during Progressive Era

Answer 7

• Investigative journalism/ muckracking
• most prominent TX dailies promoted a pro-biz agenda
• some exposed gov & biz corruption and social ills
• two major issues : women’s suffrage and reemergence of Ku Klux Klan

Question 8

The Dallas Express

Answer 8

The oldest African American newspaper
1892 - 1970

Question 9

What was the effect of primarily state and local publishers?

Answer 9

No yellow journalism

Question 10

Describe radio before WWI

Answer 10

There were thousands of unlicensed stations, although most were shuttered when the military took control of the airwaves during WWI

Question 11

Radio

Answer 11

An important source of news and entertainment

Question 12

Federal Communications Commission

Answer 12

an independent US gov agency created by Congress

oversees public airways and provides guidelines for appropriate use

Question 13

Walter Dealey

Answer 13

the most influential individual in making radio a major force in Texas

• Worked with the city of Dallas to create WRR radio in 1920; the first licensed radio station in Texas and 2nd in the US
• WFAA was the 2nd licensed station in Texas

Question 14

The Golden Age of Radio

Answer 14

The era in which radio reached its peak in popularity, generally the 1930s to 1940s

Question 15

Fairness Doctrine

Answer 15

1954 - 1987
A federal law that required radio and broadcast television stations to devote equal time to opposing viewpoints; was repealed in 1987

Question 16

When did commercial television appear in Texas?

Answer 16

After WWII

Question 17

Amon Carter

Answer 17

Obtained the 1st commercial tv license in Texas in 1948

Question 18

WBAP

Answer 18

the first tv station in the southern US

Question 19

What is special about television and Texas?

Answer 19

The advent of television changed the way we looked at politics

• Sam Rayburn - the speaker of the House
• LBJ and JFK
• going to the moon

Question 20

Mainstream media

Answer 20

traditional newspaper and television news outlets, distinct from opinion or commentary

Question 21

Local and state political coverage in the media

Answer 21

Low and superficial
Change toward national over local ownership

Question 22

New media

Answer 22

forms of delivering instant communications in a digitized or electronic format

Question 23

Is media less or more biased today?

Answer 23

Less

Question 24

Selective exposure

Answer 24

Only consuming the sources that share your views
- reinforces what we already think

Question 25

Open Records Laws

Answer 25

• Media regularly files open record requests when it believes that a gov agency or subdivision is withholding info
• IGs and individuals file requests
• Most public docs are subject to an open records request

Question 26

The Open Meetings Act

Answer 26

• Rigorously enforced
• Gov affairs should be discussed out in the open
• Prevents elected officials from making deals outside of the scrutiny of the public and press
• Exceptions: personnel and real estate matters

Question 27

Shield Laws

Answer 27

Protect reporters from having to disclose their sources

Question 28

Branzburg v Hayes

Answer 28

1972
US Supreme Court held that there’s no explicit protection of one’s sources implied by 1st Amendment, leaving the decisions to st and fed govs

Question 29

Are there shield laws in Texas

Answer 29

No and no push for them

Question 30

Polling

Answer 30

a measure of the public’s opinion, intensity, and direction about gov and politics

Offers a snapshot of the beliefs of the sampling of people polled at the moment they were questioned

Question 31

Public Opinion

Answer 31

comprises the beliefs of TXns on a variety of issues
derives from political culture but deals with salient issues

Question 32

Salient issues

Answer 32

Issues that resonate with the public.
Public opinion on them can change rapidly

Question 33

Tracking polls

Answer 33

polls that trace public opinion over time

Question 34

Focus groups

Answer 34

more intense polling with smaller sample size

Question 35

Margin of error

Answer 35

the range of accuracy in a poll

Question 36

Confidence rate

Answer 36

how likely it is that the poll, given its margin of error, represent the entire universe

Question 37

Exit polls

Answer 37

valuable to political scientists and analysts because it gives insight into who voted for whom and why

Question 38

Push polling

Answer 38

a tactic intended to persuade respondents, disguised as a poll