Goverment Vocabulary Unit 1

Media

The method of communicating, entertainment, or other messages

Media Bias

the intentional or unintentional slanting of news reporting toward one side due to political views or cultural beliefs of journalists, producers or owners of a media outlet.

Digital Communication

the use of online tools like email, text messaging or social media to share a message with an audience or individual.

Public Opinion

the distribution of individual preferences or evaluations of a given issue, candidate, or institution within a specific population.

Polling/Public Opinion Poll

a type of survey or inquiry designed to measure the public's view on a topic or series of topics (like a candidate or ideas in a bill).

Political Parties

a group of persons organized to acquire and exercise political power.

Two-Party System

a political system in which the electors give votes largely to only two major parties and in which one or the other party can win a majority in the legislature.

Third Party

a political party organized in opposition to the major parties in a two-party system.

Elector

a person who is certified to represent their state's vote in the Electoral College / cast their votes in the Electoral College.

Independent Voter

a voter who lacks a strong sense of party identification or alignment, and is up for grabs by a party at an election.

Lobbyist

a person who takes part in an organized attempt to influence legislators.

Interest Group

a group of people or an organization seeking or receiving special advantages, typically through political lobbying.

Campaign Finance

raising and spending of money intended to influence a political vote.

Financial Contributions

* the direct transfer of funds, such as grants, loans, and equity infusions, or the potential direct transfer of funds or liabilities, such as loan guarantees.
* foregoing or not collecting revenue that is otherwise due, such as granting tax credits or deductions from taxable income.
* providing goods or services, other than general infrastructure.

Campaign

Effort by candidate to meet and win support of voters

Demographics

characteristics shared by a group of people, such as age, occupation, gender, education, etc. (Often demographics are used to make public policy decisions.)

Political Action Committee

a private group that raises and distributes funds for election campaigns but are limited in the amount of money they can give directly to a candidate.

Suffrage

the right to vote.

Voter Registration Drive

the process by which people sign up to vote.

Ballot

the device by which a voter registers a choice in an election.

Absentee Ballot

a paper ballot, sent in by mail, used to vote by voters who expect to be absent from their polling place on election day.

Primary Election

an election in which voters choose the candidates from each party who will run in the general election.

Closed Primary

a primary round of voting in which only registered members of a particular political party can vote.

Open Primary

a primary round of voting in which any registered voter can vote in any party's primary.

Caucus

a closed meeting of members of the same political party at the state level to vote in candidates for President and to select delegates to represent that state at the National Convention late in the summer.

General Election

an election where all the party winners of the primary election run against each other, all registered voters are allowed to vote in a general election.

Electoral College

a system to elect the president and the vice-president, in which each state's number of electors is equal to the number of its senators and representatives in Congress.

Popular Vote

the total number of votes cast by citizens.