Public Opinion Exam 1

the crowd

develops in response to shared emotions, the anonymity of crowd members leads to the feeling of perceived invincibility

the mass

interpersonal isolation, mass composed of anonymous people that engange in very little interaction

the public

a group of people confronted by an issue, but are divided in the ideas to solve the issue, but then engage in discussion over the issue

the 5 definitions of public opinion

1. aggregation of individual opinions (surveys/polls)

2. Reflection on majority beliefs (focus groups)

3. found in the clash of group interests

4. Reflection of media and elite influence (Lippmann)

5. is a fiction

the most prevalent view of public opinion

public opinion is an aggregation of individual opinions

Lippmann’s view of public opinion

public opinion reflects media and elite influence

Direction of public opinion

does the public support or oppose the thing? it isn’t black and white

Intensity of Public Opinion

Is the minority more vocal than the majority? Vis versa? who gets listened to?

Stability of Public Opinion

The consistency of peoples’ opinions. the more stable it is, the more likely it will be listened to

Habermas’ view of public opinion

the meaning of public opinion shifts with each era, tied to the public sphere

public sphere

forum for discussion of politics outside of the home and government like bars or talk radio shows

Plato’s view of public opinion

did not think people could recognize their best interests or work towards a morally sound government, said we should have a philosopher king, public opinion should be the basis for laws

Aristotle’s view of public opinion

argued on behalf of the people, defended the wisdom of the common man, climate of opinions, institutions should take raw PO and make it coherent

Machiavelli’s view of public opinion

people need a benevolent dictator because people are too focused on their present wants to be able to govern themselves, he was a conflict theorist. He thought that public opinion was volatile, irrational, and potentially expulsive. Leaders should always be thinking about PO because it is easier to get things done when people like you

conflict theorist

someone who believes that under the peaceful society there is always a conflict brewing

Rousseau’s view of public opinion

Thought it was necessary to put power in the hands of the public, PO is a collection of individual opinions and organic force rooted in shared values, the general will, wrote the social contract, people just want honesty, orginary people have a better sense of good than politicians

the general will

what citizens want when they think about the whole of the community

Marx’s view of public opinion

democracy is subjective to corruption because of capitalism, public opinion merely reflects the opinions of the ruling class, believed in hegemony

hegemony

common people mimic opinions of the ruling class

Bryce’s view on public opinion

the first modern theorist, thought about how expression and measurement of PO is related to party activity, legislators, and mass media. Studied how newspapers are important for public opinion, they reflect and direct public opinion

Tarde’s view of public opinion

conversation+press= public opinion, media→conversation→opinion→action

How did coffeehouses serve as public opinion technologies?

Coffeehouses were mixes of all walks of life and anyone could pay to spend hours with newspapers, books, others, and discussion. You can’t really form public opinion unil you spitball with your bros. 

How did salons serve as public opinion technologies?

Full of intellectuals, statesmen, and artists. They were way less democratic. Bourgeois women would invite people and control conversation. King’s people would go to these to collect public opinion but this would only reflect elite opinion

3 Trends in public opinion technologies

1. increasing emphasis on order and routinization

2. movement towards private and anonymous ways of expression

3. Expression and assessment has shifted local to national to global

Probability sampling

respondents have equal chances of being in the sample :)

Non probability sampling

Respondents do NOT have an equal chance of being in the sample :(

How can you reduce a survey’s margin of error?

Having a bigger sample size

Mail-administered surveys

con: the absolute worst
pro: okay for intra-business stuff

Telephone interviews

most popular method right now
pros: random digit dialing, fast&flexible, cheap,
con: interview training required

Internet surveys

probably going to overtake telephone surveys
pros: YouGov membership you’ll almost always get responses

In-person interviews

preferred and ideal

pro: better raport, able to use visual aid
con: too expensive

Focus groups

using group dynamics to measure public opinion. carefully designed discussions designed to obtain perceptions on a defined area of interest in a permissive, nonthreatening environment. Not very generalizable. 
pros: gaining info you wouldn’t get any other way, open ended discussion
cons: stale convo, not generalizable

experimental research

investigates how people respond to particular information, situations, and other treatments. ESTABLISHES CAUSE AND EFFECT

pro: causality
con: demand characteristics

demand characteristics

people’s tendency to adjust their answers/behaviors based on their perception of their researcher’s expectations

content analysis

the systematic assessment of media texts. Figuring out what media people consumes gives us a good sense of what their attitudes are

pro: unobtrusive and nonreactive
con: hard to choose good sources that actually represent the population and aren’t just the easy ot analyze ones

intercoder reliability

rate of agreement among coders that is necessary for conducting content analysis

survey

technique for measuring characteristics of a particular population of individuals

population

entire group

sample

a subset of the population to represent the whole

polls

a type of survey that results in simple descriptive statistsics

cross sectional survey

done at one point in time to provide a snapshot of public views at a particular time

panel surveys

re-interview the same people over a span of time to see how opinions change

nonresponse bias

the differences between respondents and nonrespondents, usually unrepresentative

social desirability effect

you don’t want to pose a question in a way that makes the respondent not want to answer because the wording makes them feel ashamed of their answer. People want to seem social acceptable always

priming effect

what someone says first makes a big difference

question order effect

setting someone up to get a specific answer. Like asking someone if they’ve been a victim of crime before asking what they think the biggest problem is the US is

push polls

opinion surveys that try to sway the respondents in a certain way with manipulative questions