American Government: Media, Elections, and Political Participation

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering American government lecture notes on media regulation and framing, elections in Georgia and the U.S., models of voter turnout, and unconventional political participation.

Media

The means of mass communication to inform the general public, traditionally referring to newspapers, magazines, television, and the internet.

Information Revolution

The radical increase in human beings' ability to communicate with each other and to access and share information due to the rise of the internet and other computer software.

Social Media

Platforms that enable the formation of online communities and networks through which participants express thoughts and feelings, portray personal experiences, and share information, ideas, personal messages, videos, and other content.

Unmediated Communication

The ability made possible by social media for powerful officials to directly communicate with the public without going through traditional media filters.

Freedom of the Press

The freedom of journalists and news media organizations to report information without fear of censorship, financial penalty, imprisonment, physical abuse, or intimidation by government.

Watchdog Role

The role of the press and media in investigating and alerting the public about government wrongdoings.

Marketplace of Ideas

The principle that government should not suppress the expression of unpopular ideas, but rather should let different viewpoints compete for social acceptance.

Yellow Journalism

Sensationalized coverage of scandals and human-interest stories.

The Informational Model of Journalism

A journalistic approach that provides important news about the economy, politics, and the world rather than gossip and comics, exhibiting impartiality and accuracy while promoting transparency in government and politics.

Muckraking

The writing and publishing of news coverage that exposes corrupt business and government practices.

Soft News

News presented in an entertaining style and approachable manner.

Defamation

The making of false statements that harm someone’s reputation, which is not covered by the First Amendment.

Libel

A defamatory statement that is expressed in writing.

Slander

A defamatory statement that is spoken out loud.

Actual Malice Standard

The standard used to determine whether defamatory statements made about elected officials or other public figures are protected by the First Amendment.

Telecommunications Act of 1996

Legislation that overturned the FCC ruling that limited the number of radio and television stations a single company could own, allowing networks to purchase large numbers of cable stations.

Net Neutrality

The idea that internet service providers must treat all web traffic equally, and therefore may not be allowed to charge different rates or discriminate against different websites in any way.

Framing

The process by which the media influences how we think about an issue by highlighting particular considerations or aspects of the issue.

Priming

The process by which the media influences how we think about an issue by leading us to unconsciously bring certain considerations to the top of our head when we evaluate the issue.

Episodic Frame

The portrayal of an event as a stand-alone occurrence that leads the news consumer to react in a visceral and emotional way.

Thematic Frame

Coverage of an event that places it in a broader context and leads news consumers to understand the causes of the event and how it relates to broader, longer-term trends and patterns.

Equal Time Rule

An FCC policy requiring that all candidates running for office must be given the same radio and television airtime opportunities.

Fairness Doctrine (Faire Doctrine)

A 1949 FCC policy, repealed in the 1980s, that required holders of broadcast licenses to cover controversial issues in a balanced manner by providing listeners with information about all perspectives on any controversial issue.

Section 230

A legal provision establishing that online platforms may not be sued for content posted by users on their sites, even if the platforms act like publishers by moderating posts, establishing community standards, and distributing commercial advertisements.

Agenda Setting

The power of the media to influence what the public thinks or does not think about through its decisions to cover some events and issues more than others.

Ideological Bias

The systematic slanting of media coverage in favor of one or more ideological or partisan orientation(s) and against others.

Politics

Contending for influence over the government.

Primary Elections

Elections in which voters receive a separate ballot for each party to select nominees.

General Elections

Elections where party nominees run against each other to determine who serves in office.

Runoff Elections

Elections required by Georgia that take place when no candidate exceeds $50\%$ of the vote.

Special Elections

Elections that occur to fill seats vacated when an elected official resigns, retires, passes away before their term ends, or is removed from office.

Recall Elections

Elections allowing citizens to remove officials from office; Georgia allows recall elections for every kind of public official at every level of government, though they are very rare.

Ranked Choice Voting

A voting system that avoids costly runoff elections and allows voters to rank their favorite candidates without fear that doing so will help a candidate they dislike win.

Referendum

A proposed law placed on a ballot by a legislative authority.

Citizen Ballot Initiatives

Referenda placed on ballots by citizens who gather a required number of signatures on petitions; permitted in 24 states, but not allowed in Georgia.

Convenience Voting

Flexible opportunities to vote besides traditional in-person voting at the polls on Election Day.

Absentee Voting

A form of voting where voters receive ballots via mail or electronically and send them back through the mail.

Early In-Person Voting

A voting opportunity where voters cast their ballots in person at special polling locations up to three weeks before Election Day.

Voting Age Population (VAP)

The most common measure of voter turnout, calculated as the number of persons who voted divided by the number of adults who are 18 years or older.

Voting Eligible Population (VEP)

The preferred voter turnout measure, which excludes noncitizens and those disenfranchised for felonies and mental impairment from the denominator.

Epistocracy (Episotcracy)

A political concept advocated by Jason Brennan proposing that voting should be restricted to the highly informed, asserting that individuals with low political knowledge have a moral duty to abstain and should be prohibited from voting.

Downs Rational Choice Model of Voting

A model predicting that an individual will choose to vote if the expected net benefits exceed zero, expressed mathematically as $B_i = p(Y_i - Z_i) - C_i$.

The Paradox of Voting

The puzzle of why anyone incurs costs to vote even though the probability of casting the deciding vote in an election is typically near zero.

D-Term

The direct, emotional benefits derived from voting that are completely independent of whether one’s vote is the decisive factor in an election, modifying the voting calculus to $B_i = p(Y_i - Z_i) + D_i - C_i$.

Resource Model of Voting

The theory that inequalities in resources such as time, education, and money lead to inequalities in the costs of voting, making voting more expensive for citizens with lower incomes and less knowledge.

Civil Disobedience

The intentional breaking of the law to make a political point.

Strike

A collective decision by a large number of people to refuse to work in order to dramatize a situation or force those who are adversely affected to make concessions.

Boycott

A collective refusal to purchase a particular good or service.

Riot

An event that occurs when demonstrations, marches, and protests result in property damage or violence, characterized by Martin Luther King Jr. as 'the language of the unheard.'