Mass Media

What is Public Opinion?

• Complex collection of the opinions of many different people (on public Affairs)

• Misconceptions of Public Opinion:– Belief all or most people have the same view – The public favors this or that

• Very few matters all or most of “the People” agree on

• Must involve something of general concern and a significant portion of the people

Different Publics

• Believe it or not there are different Publics…– Each issues has a

“public” • National health care;

President is doing an excellent/terrible job; Capital punishment should be abolished

– Belong to more than one

Different Publics:

• Not many Issues capture the attention of “ALL” Americans – Name one????

• Public Opinion includes ONLY those views related to PUBLIC AFFAIRS– Politics, public issues,

making public policy

• Other Factors

Family And Education

• Your not born with your values

• Political Opinions are learned – From mom and dad – Teachers/schools – Education – Friends – Experiences and

relationships

Other Factors

• Weight of each factor that influences public opinion depends on the issue – Mass Media – Peer groups – Opinion leaders – Historic events

Other Factors:

• Means of communication that reach large, widely dispersed audiences – Television:

• 98% households = 1 T.V.• Turned on for 7 hours a

day

• Peer Groups – People who you talk too

regularly – Reinforces what a person

has already come to believe

Other Factors: • Opinion Leaders

– A person who has unusually strong influence on the views of others (draw ideas and conventions)

• Hold public office • Newspapers • Magazines

• Historical Events – Great Depression ( role of

government) – 60’s and 70’s traumatic

events; resignation of Nixon– Evaluated trustworthiness of

government

Measuring Public Opinion

Measuring Public Opinion

• Elections

• Voting

• Lobbying

• Books

• Pamphlets

• Editorial comments in the Press

• Public Officials

Measuring Public Opinion

• Elections – Results are indicator of Public Opinion?

• People’s approval/rejection • Parties claim a mandate

– Refers to the instructions or commands a constituency gives its elected officials

– “Elections are, at best, only useful indicators of public opinion.”

– Represents only a GENERAL directions parties should take

Measuring Public Opinion

• Interest Groups:– Private organizations whose members share

certain views and objectives and work to shape making and the content of public policy

• The Media – “mirrors” or “molders” – Reflect only the views of the vocal majority

Measuring Public Opinion

• Personal Contacts – “read the publics mind” – “voice of the people?” – Contacts with the public

Poll- the “Best” Measure

• Straw vote is a method of polling that seeks to read the public’s mind simply by asking the same question of a large number of people.

• The straw-vote technique is highly unreliable, however.

• Scientific Polling – Serious efforts to take the public’s pulse

on a scientific basis date from the 1930s.– There are now more than 1,000 national

and regional polling organizations in this country, with at least 200 of these polling political preferences.

Poll- the “Best” Measure

The Polling Process

• Five things pollsters must do – Define the universe to be surveyed – Construct a sample – Prepare valid questions – Select and control how the poll will be taken – Analyze and report their findins to the public

Polling Process

• Defining the Universe – Whole population the poll aims to measure – Every high school student in Georgia – Atlanta voters

• Constructing a Sample – A representative slice of the total universe – Random samples

• 1500 people

– Quota sample • Sample deliberately constructed to reflect several of the

major characteristics of a given universe

Polling Process

• Preparing Valid Questions – Wording can affect the reliability of any poll – “Should local taxes be reduced?”– “”Should the city’s police force be increased to

fight rising tide of crime in our community?” – Ask loaded questions, emotionally charged

words, terms that are difficult to understand

Polling Process

• Interviewing – Telephone: calls are placed randomly chosen

area codes around the nation – Less labor intensive/less expensive – Tone of voice – Emphasis given to certain words – Responses are given to “please” the pollster

Polling Process

• Analyze and Report findings – Collect huge amounts of raw data – Computers – Other election hardware – Tabulate and interpret data; draw

conclusions; report findings

Evaluating Polls

• Most national and regional polls are fairly reliable. (they are far from perfect.)

• Potential problems with polls – Inability to measure the intensity, stability, and

relevance of the opinions they report.– polls and pollsters sometimes shape the

opinions they are supposed to measure.

Limits on the Impact of Public Opinion • Public opinion is the major, but by no

means the only, influence on public policy in this country.

• American political system is designed to protect minority interests against the excesses of majority views and actions.

• Polls are not elections, nor are they substitutes for elections.

The Role of Mass Media

• Medium – Means of communication; transmits some

kind of information – Four Major Kinds in US

• Television • Newspaper • Radio • Magazines

– Internet is increasing more important every year….replacing newspapers

The Role of Mass Media

• Presents people with political information – Directly in news

reports – Less direct: radio,

television, newspaper stories, magazine articles

Role of Mass Media

• Television:– Replaced Newspapers as the principal source

of political information • NBC, ABC, CBS• Others: CNN, PBS, etc

• Newspapers:– Freedom of Press – # of papers continues to Decline with rise of

internet

Role of Mass Media

• Radio:– 1930’s Major entertainment and political

information center– President F. Roosevelt: 1st to use radio

effectively – 20 hours of radio a week – Talk Radio

• Political commentaries

Role of Mass Media

• Magazines:– 12,000 published in

U.S. today – Time, Newsweek, U.S.

News and World Report

The Media and Politics

• Public Agenda – Societal problems that the nation’s political

leaders and the general public agree need government attention

– Focus public on a particular issue – Don’t tell you what to think but what to think

about – Political leaders pay close attention to Media

Electoral Politics

• Make candidates less dependent on party organizations

• Appeal directly to the people • Create their own image • Strategy:

– Take no more than a minute or two of air time – Show people doing something interesting and exciting – Sound Bites: snappy reports that can be aired 30-45

seconds