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Citizens’ groups - Organized interests formed by individuals drawn together by opportunities to promote a cause in which they believe but that does not provide them significant individual economic benefits.

Collective (public) goods - Benefits that are offered by groups (usually citizens’ groups) as an incentive for membership but that are nondivisible (such as a clean environment) and therefore are available to nonmembers as well as members of the particular group.

Economic groups - Interest groups that are organized primarily for economic reasons but that engage in political activity in order to seek favorable policies from government.

Free-rider problem - The situation in which the benefits offered by a group to its members are also available to nonmembers. The incentive to join the group and to promote its cause is reduced because nonmembers (free riders) receive the benefits (e.g., a cleaner environment) without having to pay any of the group’s costs.

Inside lobbying - Direct communication between organized interests and policy makers, which is based on the assumed value of close (“inside”) contacts with policy makers.

Interest group - Any organization that actively seeks to influence public policy.

Iron triangle - A small and informal but relatively stable group of well-positioned legislators, executives, and lobbyists who seek to promote policies beneficial to a particular interest.

Issue network - An informal and relatively open network of public officials and lobbyists who come together in response to a proposed policy in an area of interest to each of them. Unlike an iron triangle, an issue network disbands after the issue is resolved.

Lobbying - The process by which interest-group members or lobbyists attempt to influence public policy through contacts with public officials.

Outside lobbying - A form of lobbying in which an interest group seeks to use public pressure as a means of influencing officials.

Political action committee (PAC) - The organization through which an interest group raises and distributes funds for election purposes. By law, the funds must be raised through voluntary contributions.

Private (individual) goods - Benefits that a group (most often an economic group) can grant directly and exclusively to individual members of the group.

Super PACs - Election committees that are unrestricted in their fundraising and spending as long as they do not coordinate their campaign efforts with those of a candidate.

Chapter 10:

Agenda setting - The power of the media through news coverage to focus the public’s attention and concern on particular events, problems, issues, personalities, and so on.

Common-carrier function - The media’s function as an open channel through which political leaders can communicate with the public.

Framing - The process by which the media play up certain aspects of a situation while downplaying other aspects, thereby providing a particular interpretation of the situation.

High-choice media system - A media system in which audiences have such a wide range of choices that they can largely control the type of information to which they are exposed.

Low-choice media system - A media system in which audiences have a single daily newspaper and three television networks—ABC, CBS, and NBC.

News - The news media’s version of reality, usually with an emphasis on timely, dramatic, and compelling events and developments.

News media (press) - Print, broadcast, cable, and internet organizations that are in the news-reporting business.

Objective journalism - A model of news reporting that is based on the communication of “facts” rather than opinions and that is “fair” in that it presents all sides of partisan debate.

Partisan function - Efforts by media actors to influence public response to a particular party, leader, issue, or viewpoint.

Partisan press - Newspapers and other communication media that openly support a political party and whose news tends to follow the party line.

Priming - The way in which the context established by media messages affects how people interpret the information they receive.

Signaling (signaler) function - The responsibility of the media to alert the public to important developments as soon as possible after they happen or are discovered.

Watchdog function - The accepted responsibility of the media to protect the public from incompetent or corrupt officials by standing ready to expose any official who violates accepted legal, ethical, or performance standards.