Interest Groups and Social Movements Midterm #2

Political Process Model

A theory that social movements emerge when political opportunities, organizational strength, and changes in political efficacy come together. — McAdam argues that the Civil Rights Movement benefited from changing political opportunities, strong Black organizations, and growing beliefs that collective action could succeed.

Political Opportunities

Changes in the political, social, or economic environment that make it easier for a challenging group to achieve its goals. — The growing importance of Black voters created opportunities for the Civil Rights Movement to pressure political leaders.

Cognitive Liberation

A change in a group's belief that its members can influence political outcomes through their own actions. — African Americans became more optimistic about challenging segregation as political institutions showed signs of responsiveness to civil rights concerns.

Indigenous Organizations

Organizations and networks that already exist within a challenging group and can support its mobilization. — Black churches, colleges, and local NAACP chapters provided the Civil Rights Movement with leaders, volunteers, meeting places, and communication networks.

Resource Mobilization Theory

A theory that emphasizes the resources necessary for groups to organize and sustain collective action. — McAdam challenges the idea that outside financial support caused the Civil Rights Movement to emerge, arguing that its early resources came largely from within the movement.

Classical Model

An approach that explains social movements as responses to psychological disturbances caused by social strain. — The classical model predicts that frustration and economic hardship will precede protest, but McAdam finds that changes in social strain do not consistently correlate with increases in protest.

Relative Deprivation

The perception that one's group is disadvantaged compared with other groups, even if its absolute circumstances have improved. — The theory suggests that African Americans might mobilize when their economic gains fail to narrow the gap between their circumstances and those of white Americans.

Rising Expectations Theory

The idea that social movements emerge when improvements in people's circumstances fail to meet their increasing expectations. — A group may become frustrated and protest even when its living standards have improved if those improvements fall short of what members expected.

J-Curve Theory

The idea that movements are likely to emerge when a prolonged period of improving conditions is followed by a sudden reversal. — A sharp deterioration in economic circumstances after a period of rising expectations can create the conditions for protest.

Collective Action

Coordinated activity by individuals working toward a shared goal. — Civil rights activists used sit-ins, marches, and Freedom Rides to challenge segregation and pressure political authorities.

Indigenous Resources

Resources generated within a social movement's own community and organizational networks. — The Civil Rights Movement relied on existing churches, colleges, volunteers, and local NAACP chapters rather than depending initially on outside financial support.

Critical Dynamic

A process in which disruptive protest provokes conflict and can pressure political authorities to intervene on behalf of a movement. — During the Civil Rights Movement, violent reactions to protests sometimes increased pressure on federal officials to address segregation and protect demonstrators.

Social Movement Organization (SMO)

An organization that coordinates activities and pursues the goals of a social movement. — The Black Panther Party received substantially more media attention than many other organizations in the Black Power movement.

Media Attention

The amount of visibility a social movement or organization receives in news coverage. — Seguin's presentation explains that media attention can help social movement organizations expand their membership, attract elite allies, and influence political outcomes.

Media Framing

The process of emphasizing particular issues, people, or interpretations while leaving other information in the background. — Boykoff and Laschever examine how news coverage portrayed the Tea Party as either representative of everyday Americans or a non-mainstream movement.

Framing Contests

Competition between movements and other political actors to shape how an issue or movement is understood. — The Tea Party movement competed with political elites and media outlets over whether it would be portrayed as a legitimate grassroots movement or as an establishment-affiliated or fringe movement.

Media Effects

The influence of media coverage on public opinion and political debate. — Brown and Mourao examine how exposure to different news outlets related to people's perceptions of Black Lives Matter protests and their effectiveness.

Cascading

A process in which media attention to a social movement organization grows as news outlets continue covering it and other outlets follow. — The Black Panther Party's coverage expanded after its 1967 protest at the California State Legislature, and subsequent conflicts generated additional news attention.

Newsworthiness

The qualities that make an event or issue likely to receive media coverage. — News outlets tend to favor conflict, individual leaders, and dramatic events over the background conditions or collective views of movement members.

Protest Paradigm

A pattern of news coverage that emphasizes the disruption, conflict, violence, or alleged deviance associated with protests rather than the movement's underlying grievances. — Brown and Mourao found that most outlets in their study, with MSNBC as the exception, were more likely to emphasize BLM protesters' deviance and clashes than their message.

Media Bias Model

An explanation that media attention reflects biases in news selection and coverage rather than providing a neutral representation of all social movements. — Seguin's presentation argues that larger organizations, groups with more resources, movements using disruptive tactics, and those with resonant issue framing tend to receive more coverage.

Elite Media

Major news organizations that play a significant role in determining which political events and movements receive public attention. — Ontiveros explains that television networks helped shape public understanding of civil rights activism, but the Chicano Civil Rights Movement received limited coverage.

Black/White Binary

A framework that presents racial history primarily as a relationship between Black and white Americans, marginalizing other racial and ethnic groups. — Ontiveros argues that this framework contributed to the limited television coverage of the Chicano Civil Rights Movement.

Media Visibility

The extent to which a movement and its activities are publicly seen and recognized through media coverage. — The limited visibility of Chicano activism contributed to the mistaken impression that Mexican Americans had not engaged in sustained political resistance.

Deviance

Behavior portrayed as violating social norms or accepted standards. — Coverage of the Chicano Moratorium and the Black Lives Matter protests sometimes emphasized disorder and confrontation, potentially overshadowing the movements' goals.

Legitimacy

The perception that a movement or its actions are justified, credible, or deserving of support. — News coverage can influence whether audiences view protesters as legitimate political participants or as disruptive outsiders.

Partisan Media

News outlets whose political orientations influence how they cover political events and issues. — Brown and Mourao found that media consumption was associated with attitudes toward BLM, while Boykoff and Laschever discuss Fox News's role in portraying the Tea Party favorably.

Advocacy Media

Media that actively supports or promotes a particular political cause or perspective. — Boykoff and Laschever argue that Fox News helped legitimize and boost the Tea Party movement through favorable coverage.

Grassroots Movement

A movement built substantially through local participation and organizing rather than being directed entirely by established political elites. — The Tea Party consisted of decentralized local groups that often operated independently, even when national organizations provided support.

Resonant Issue Framing

Presenting a movement's grievances in ways that connect with an audience's existing values and beliefs. — The Tea Party's emphasis on lower taxes and limited government resonated with Americans concerned about government intervention in their lives.

Mobilization

The process of organizing people and resources to participate in collective action. — McAdam emphasizes the importance of existing organizational networks, while the Tea Party example demonstrates how local groups and organizers can mobilize supporters.

Political Efficacy

The belief that one's political participation can influence government or political outcomes. — McAdam connects growing political efficacy among African Americans to the emergence and expansion of the Civil Rights Movement.

Disruptive Tactics

Protest strategies that interrupt normal activities or challenge established institutions to attract attention or pressure authorities. — Sit-ins, marches, and boycotts can increase pressure on political elites, but media coverage may focus on the disruption rather than the movement's goals.

Political Elites

Individuals or groups with substantial influence over political institutions and decisions. — Social movements attempt to pressure political elites to change policy, while media coverage can affect how elites and the public perceive a movement.

Political Leverage

The ability to influence decision-makers by creating pressure or making inaction costly. — McAdam's account of the Civil Rights Movement shows how disruptive protests and reactions to them sometimes pressured federal authorities to intervene.

Social Movement Decline

A reduction in a movement's activity, influence, or ability to sustain mobilization. — McAdam's notes identify organizational fragmentation, disagreement over goals, declining political opportunities, and reduced public attention as factors contributing to the decline of the Civil Rights Movement after 1965.

Organizational Networks

Connections between people and organizations that facilitate communication, recruitment, coordination, and resource sharing. — Black churches, colleges, and NAACP chapters helped civil rights campaigns spread between communities.

Public Opinion

The distribution of attitudes and beliefs among members of the public about political issues or actors. — Brown and Mourao examine how political ideology and media consumption relate to attitudes toward BLM protests, while McAdam emphasizes the political importance of public support for civil rights.

Political Constituency

A group of people whose political preferences or votes matter to elected officials. — The growing electoral importance of Black voters created incentives for politicians to respond to civil rights concerns.

Collective Identity

A shared sense of belonging to a group that helps people recognize common interests and mobilize around common goals. — The Tea Party's shared opposition to the perceived progressivism of the Obama administration helped connect otherwise decentralized local groups