Topic 8 (Influencing Voters) Flashcards
Influencing Voters Through Emotion
-voting on “feel” (‘feels right, sounds right, is right!’)
Influencing Voters Through TV and Internet
-can help or hinder the campaign
Influencing Voters Through “Framing the Debate”
-defining an issue/opponent on YOUR terms
Candidate Image:
-candidates try to portray an image to potential voters
-Kennedyesque (Dem.)
-Reaganesque (Rep.)
-“Common Man” (Lamar flannel, Kerry hunting)
Propaganda
-methods of persuasion
-ideas, information, or rumor/innuendo to influence public opinion
-not based on facts, used to persuade
Talking Points
-pre-established message or formula for how you want your followers to talk about issues
Ad nauseum
-ideas repeated over and over, regardless of truth, to create belief
Labeling (type of propaganda)
-name-calling or identifying a candidate with a term
-also includes nicknames that define opponent
-“un-American”, “America-Hater”, “Liberal”, “Flip-Flopper”, “socialist”
Spin (type of propaganda)
-interpreting a political event or statement from a particular point of view
-favorable spin to you, unfavorable to the opponent
Glittering Generalities
-use of virtue, words or link to a positive symbol to describe a desired candidate or one’s self
-designed to create positive feeling, not information
-“family”, “democracy”, “resolute”, “historic”
Fear
-play on deep-seated fears, warning of impending disaster if an opposing candidate it chosen
-uses irrational fears or an unknown future
False Logic (Logical Fallacy)
-using a fact or set of facts to reach a false conclusion
-(Bush is rich. Bush is Republican. Republicans are rich)
“Firehose of Falsehood”
-flooding media with a large number of ideas rapidly, repeatedly, and continuously without regard for truth or consistency
-“flooding the zone with bullcrap”
-designed to confuse and create belief by mere repetition
-gaslighting
Gaslighting
-sow seeds of doubt, forcing a question of one’s memory
Card Stacking
-giving only one side of the facts to support a position
