COM 450 Political Com Exam 1-3

Walter Lippmann

(1922) Public Opinion

**Agenda-Setting process**

* role of the mass media in public opinion formation in a democracy.
* “ because of media (newspapers, radio etc) that the public is exposed to similar and consistent issues, thus forming public opinion ”

Theorised that Media has strong, powerful effects

Harold Lasswell

Propaganda Analysis

* **Content Analysis** of media messages eg. positive/ negative valence. Quantifies type of news
* *Who says what to whom via which channels with what effects?*
* hypodermic needle theory

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Paul F. Lazarsfeld

**Erie County Study**

* Focus groups
* Voting behaviour, Erie county study, Asked the same 600 ppl 1 year ago vs day after voting who they voted for
* The campaigns had no huge effect on voting behaviour; only 54 of his 600 respondents changed their vote, and few did it cus of media
* Concluded that Media has limited, indirect effects like agenda setting

Agenda Setting Theory

Media can have direct effects, but generally don’t

Media does not tell us what to think… but **what to think about**

* Correlation between media coverage \[time\] of an event and ‘public agenda’
* Frequency of news coverage influences public agenda; what ppl view as important

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Media agenda → Public agenda → Policy agenda

how agenda setting works..?

* **Media agenda** (analysed through content analysis of language and framing)


* influences **Public agenda** (known through survey data)
* which then affects **Policy agenda** (Laws, regulations)

Framing

How issues are given meaning; rephrased to invoke different understandings

**Leading headlines**: *“Rat bites baby, single mother left baby alone to cash welfare check”*

Insinuates that the taxpayer money is going to this lady who had a child out of wedlock and is not caring for the baby (plays to Conservatives who value traditional family)

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Individual level tragedy vs. real world indicators \[ie., AIDS related deaths\]

Individual level tragedies sell stories more

^^Liberalism (Left)^^

^^**(change is good! Power to equality!)**^^

Democrats

Based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, right to private property and equality before the law

Eg. New York times is a liberal newspaper (National Public Radio) NPR is left leaning

==Conservatives (Right)==

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==**(change is bad! maintain status quo!)**==

Republicans

More traditional mindset/ values, nuclear family seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values.

eg. Wall Street Journal (finance/business newspaper) is conservative leaning , FOX news is far right/ right wing news

Framing and Climate change

Use of term “climate change” in replacement of “Global Warming” to target conservative audience

Climate change framing is **more ambiguous and open ended than “warming”** which suggests a directional cause

__Based on his colleague’s proposal:__

Aim: Use of climate change frame to target conservatives. They are **linking climate change with personal level risks** such as public health, personal risks such as asthma

Should train journalists to write about how climate change affects people personally (individual level tragedy) so that conservatives are more open to accept climate change/ global warming (act as mediators and provide accurate information)

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Political Media Bubble

Refers to the Liberal bias in US media

“As of 2013, only 7 percent of \[journalists\] identified as Republicans” (Conservatives)

* Journalistic groupthink due to vast majority of journalists being liberal (the universities journalists graduate from are liberal, conservatives are outliers )
* The distribution of people working in editorial, publishing jobs (whom are mostly liberal) are not representative of US nation as a whole

Case study: social network nodes

His research: 50 students from buffalo asked them to name strong and weak ties Strong ties: parents, siblings, best friends Weak tie: someone u sat in a class with/ shared a ride with Sent out a unique invitation link for a fictitious project to the 600 ppl expanded from initial 50,

**Result: 1 in 4 (25%) of strong ties helped them in fictitious project, 1 in 10 (10%) of weak ties responded and helped participant**

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Social capital

* Resources accumulated through relationships
* Participation in networks, being connected and sharing norms

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Strong and weak ties

**Bonding** social capital – strong tie networks Homophily- ppl who we are close to are similar to us

**Bridging** - Weak tie networks, links us to other social groups and opportunities, Diversity

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Affordances of the internet

* The internet can help to expand social networks

“suppression of sensory information that may impede cooperation” cant see their looks (cannot judge them), cant smell them etc.

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Case study: Social connectivity and political discussion

More people who read newspapers will talk about issue and politics to others

Newspaper as a proxy for cognitive effort (takes more effort to read and process newspaper) hence you are more motivated to talk to ppl about it in your personal network

Compared to TV where you may just leave it on and not listen

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Reliable Data sources for voting behaviour

ICPSR: Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research

ANES: American National Election Studies

GSS: General Social Survey from NORC at the University of Chicago

Survey methods

* Qualitative
* Quantitative (used the most)
* Triangulation

Quantitative used the most, Followed by content analysis, experimental, focus groups

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Push Polling

A form of negative campaigning that is disguised as a political poll.

Polls taken to feed negative information about a political opponent while delivering a persuasive message that would lead respondents to vote against that candidate.

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Eg. George bush did this to another republican; his poll is are u aware that (opp member) had a extramarital affair with an African American woman and had a child out of wedlock When the guy actually adopted a child

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Benchmark/ opinion poll

A benchmark poll is generally the first poll taken in a campaign.

* It is often taken before a candidate announces their bid for office, but sometimes it happens immediately following that announcement


* surveys conducted **to establish a baseline measurement of public opinion** or sentiment on a particular issue

Trial-heat poll

A hypothetical survey where they ask “who do u prefer between these 2 ppl/ candidates”

poll from a sample pool of data asking who they would vote for

somewhere in the middle (this is goldilocks, not at the start, not at the end)

Exit Polls

Polls conducted as voters leave selected polling places on Election Day

Tracking Poll

Continuous surveys that enable a campaign or news organization to chart a candidate's daily rise or fall in support over a period of time

Independent variable

A variable that is intentionally changed to observe its effect on the dependent variable

Dependent variable

The event studied and expected to change when the independent variable is changed

Russian Trolls

Influenced the 2016 election to provide misinformation to voters, divide American voters and to boost trump

Subliminal messaging

Subliminal advertising does not work

Political Advertising

* Control over messages (everything is scripted, staged, choreographed)
* Distributed via mass communication channels
* Early form of political advertising: Handbills, placards, posters

 
* Contemporary form of advertising: all about money spent on adverts

Fairness doctrine

* 1949: present both sides of issue honestly, equitably, and balanced
* Repealed in 1987 under Regan
* Led to Opinion shows on mbc and fox news after repealment

issue advocacy

When corporations buy ads to sway public opinion of themselves

eg. Individual energy companies ads to sway public to be more open to energy

they affiliate themselves with a candidate that supports policies favorable to them

Because they indirectly help a candidate so they also need to look good To elect politicians that are more open to oil drilling etc.

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political debates popularity

popular amongst public, Even marginally attentive ppl will get interested in these debates

More authentic than any political advertising

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As political debates is a relatively new thing; 1 datapoint every 4 years,

In 1960 with 2 candidates After kennedys assassinated death 2 new candidates, 1968 world changed (Vietnam war) Nixon won

So we cannot generalise what we learned, cannot compare as we are diff ppl from different cultures, context, different times

The Luntz Effect

The concept that political debates use increasingly simpler language so that audiences can understand them better

* Avoid complexity! Science, abstract concepts, etc.
* use of emotion

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The Flynn effect

the concept that audiences viewing the political debates are getting smarter, terms use in political debates are getting more sophisticated cus ppl are getting smarter

* better ability to think in abstract concepts and categories…
* Science, liberation from the concrete\~

and are able to better understand and keep up with the debates

political debates now

Marketing effect outcompetes cognitive force of people (Luntz effects wins)

Keep debates simple, persuasive

Debates can be a rich opportunity to learn about candidates but it has become a media production, a drama that media sells like superbowl, F1 etc.

Economics wins

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Herman Cain’s presidential bid

Herman Cain wasn’t known before he ran for presidency

His ad was so ridiculous and weird that he didnt have to pay for marketing

His ad was so bizarre everyone was talking abt it

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