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Public Opinion
group consensus about matters of public concern which has developed in the wake of informed discussion
Plato - Public
skeptical of people to make wise decisions
Doxa (public opinion) v Episteme (knowledge)
The government should be reserved for elite, forward thinkers
Aristotle - Public
the collective will of the people can be superior to opinions individuals shaping values, norms and tastes of civilization
Habermas - Public
“representative public sphere” - kings represent the public, commoners were spectators, thus public life was analogous to a theatre/stage performance
Lippman - Public
“Public Opinion” - individuals have neither the time nor the resources to develop complex reasoned responses, so they rely on elites and news media to gather intelligence in their place
Straw Polls
oral/pen and paper surveys that measure the popularity of a political candidate or policy
Systematic Surveys
Gallup poll used random sampling demonstrating weakness of straw polls
Measurement Errors
attitudes are stable over time
Response Effects
when one question impacts your response to another
Question Wording Effects
how something is asked
Non-Attitudes
expressions of opinions that don’t really exist
Non-Response Bias
Some groups won’t do/are biased against polls
News Agenda
shapes what voters think is important
News Framing
when journalists/producers select some aspects of perceived reality as more salient than others
Spiral of Silence
minority ideas are repressed and unexpressed
What two things combine to create the spiral of silence?
Agenda Setting and Public Opinion
Agenda Setting also creates
Bandwagon and Underdog effects
Does polling still matter?
Polling continues to shape public opinion
Political Economy
“the study of social relations, particularly power relations that mutually constitute the production, distribution and consumption of resources”
Political Economy is embedded in what?
Marxist philosophy
Political Economy Comes from
the rise of capitalism
Political Economy emphasizes
Inequality and Social Justice
Political Economy Explores:
Communication technologies and their conections to profit seeking companies
Media consolidation and monopolization
Access to information and participatory democracy
Internationalizing and the domination of US media
Management and labor relationships in media industries
Media is apart of
capitalism itself
Why aren’t audiences real numbers?
they are specialized
Nielsen Company
a monopoly, the rating company
Sampling Unit
Individual (audio)/Household (TV)
Multistage Cluster Sample
list of US counties, broken down by street/neighborhood
Stratified Sampling
identifying strata groups like age, identity
Sampling Errors
one point can mean a million viewers
Non-response error
too intrusive, people don’t want to do it
Television Viewing
Counted as 15 minute blocks of exposure
Diaries
Used in early rating trackings, people error
Household Meters
Tracking one system per household
Portable People Meter
starts to include time shift viewing and viewing external to household
People Meters
individualized reporting based on people code
Button and Surveillance Fatigue
Made Nielsen move from five year tracking to two year tracking
Rating
The ratio of how many households are watching a particular program out of all the households in the US
Share
The ratio of how many households are watching a particular program out of all households at a particular time
What demographics does Nielsen rely on?
Young Viewers (over 50 not considered)
Male audience is more valuable than women
High income viewers - DINK (double income no kids)
Types of Personalization
Psychographics
Lifestyle
Minority Audiences
Psychographics
status seeking, compusiveness, sociability
Life Style
Media habits, products, populations
Minority Audiences
Narrowing on race, sexuality
Note 
Flashcard (115)