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Agenda-setting power

News editors and producers have to choose what to cover and what to leave out

Agents of socialization

Many agents, or forces, play a part in political socialization which includes family, schools, religion, friends, and the mass media

Benchmark poll

- Used by perspective candidates to "test the waters" before starting a campaign

Broadcast media

Radio and Television

Blogs

A journal or newsletters posted on the World Wide Web

Electronic media

Computers, cell phones, and other communication devices that connect via the Internet to the World Wide Web

Exit polls

Used by campaigns and news media to predict winners on Election Day long before polls close

Focus group

Small group of people who are brought together to discuss their opinions on a topic of concern

“gotcha” journalism

 To catch the candidate making a mistake or looking foolish

Horse race coverage

Treats an election as a sporting event, focuses on who is winning and why

Leak

 Unofficial release of confidential information to the media

Margin of error

 A measure of the accuracy of an opinion poll, the smaller the margin of error, the more confidence one can have in the results of a poll; it decreases as the # of people surveyed increases

Mass Media

Means of communication that reach a large audience, today it includes newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and the internet

Media bias

 Real or imagine prejudice that is thought to affect what stories journalists cover and how they report these stories

Mudslinging

Negative campaign

Negative campaigning 

Trying to win an advantage in a campaign by emphasizing negative aspects of an opponent or policy; aka mudslinging

News media

Newspapers, news magazines, and broadcast news shows for information on politics and public affairs

Off-the-record conversation

Reporter can use the information but may not reveal the source

On-the-record conversation

A reporter can quote a public official by their name

Opinion journalism

A marketplace for ideas and opinions; the chatter of people wanting to share their views on the world

Opinion maker

May be journalists, public officials, business leaders, or activists, since they have access to media, their opinion is "ours"

Opinion poll

A method of measuring public opinion, is done by asking questions of a random sample of people and using their answers to represent the views of the broader population

Photo-op

A carefully staged event designed to produce memorable photograph and video images

Political campaigns

An organized effort to influence voters to choose a particular candidate or support a specific issue in an election

Political socialization

The process by which a person form their personal values & attitudes, starts in childhood and continues through adulthood

Print media

Newspapers and magazines, as compared with electronic media.

Public opinion

The sum of many individual opinions, beliefs, or attitudes about a public person or issue

Push poll

Phone surveys, usually made close to election day on behalf of a candidate

Random samples

Every Individual has a chance of being selected, ranges from 500 to 1,500 people

Scientific sampling

 Process of selecting a small group of people who are representative of the whole population

Soap opera stories

Focuses on the ups and downs of candidates & their campaign

Sound-bites

Captures a politicians main point in just a few words

Spin

The deliberate shading of information about a person or an event in an attempt to influence public opinion

Staged events

Public officials at all levels of government work hard to attract all levels of gov. work hard to attract and shape media coverage; they do this by staging events

Straw polls

Informal survey of opinion conducted by a show of hands or some other means of counting preferences

Tracking poll

Conducted during a campaign to measure support for a candidate on a day to day basis

Trial balloons

A proposal that is shared with the press to test public reaction to it

World wide web

 Make billions of documents stored in computers all over the world accessible to anyone with an Internet connection