Public Opinion and the Media Flashcards
Social Capital
interpersonal trust that can be used to overcome social problems
Bonding social capital: Between similar people
Bridging social capital: Between dissimilar people
Ideology
A subset of a political culture that serves as a comprehensive way of understanding politics
Public Opinion
View of the public in the aggregate
Measured by polling
Original Given Definition
“The distribution of individual preferences for or evaluations of a given issue, candidate or institution within a specific population.”
Political Socialization
the process of developing political identity via socialization (eg. family, media, school)
Begins in childhood and are pretty stable
Early political learning structure later public opinion
Original Given Definition
“the process of acquiring knowledge, feelings, and opinions about political matters”
Sampling Error
Non-random samples
Caused by:
Self-selection
Small sample sizes
sampling error: margin of error
Coverage Error
the sample is not representative (eg sampling is random, but are not likely voters)
Measurement Error
Caused by: Question wording Question order Survey fatigue "Social desirability" Non-attitudes: respondent gives an answer to a question that they do not understand, shares blurry line with uninformed respondent
Types of Regulated Media (by FCC)
TV and Radio
Unregulated includes internet and newspapers
Nonresponse Error
Failure to get measurements or data on the entire sample
Can be reduced by:
Increase duration in field
Use weighting: multiply respondent answers to compensate for non-representative proportion
Political Knowlege
knowledge of objective facts about politics
protects against manipulation
Can the press reveal classified documents?
Yes, the press can reveal classified documents without repercussions
Media Bias
reporter opinion bias
pro-American bias
for-profit bias (eg. “horse race” election reporting, if it bleeds it reads)
