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GITELSON CHAPTER 5*: PUBLIC OPINION AND POLITICAL PARTICIPATION (F4)

1. Formation of public opinion (G 130-133*)

KEY IDEA: There is not one public opinion; there are many “publics” which an individual may

identify with in a day and through a lifetime (G 133*, see subcultures)

A. Political culture/culture, pp. 361-367 (G 130*, 133*)

B. Socialization/acculturation/agents of socialization, pp. 367-369 (G 130-133*)

1. Family (most important socialization agent), p. 367 (G 131*)

2. School (reflects dominant social values), pp. 367-368 (G 131*)

3. Peer group (face-to-face associates), p. 368 (G 131*)

4. Religion (church, synagogue, mosque, temple), p. 368 (G 133*)

5. Mass media (principle source of information, pp. 368-369) (G 131* end-132*)

a. Television: main source of information for most people, pp. 368-9 (G 131* end-132* and 133* end)

b. Newspapers: source of information for the best informed, people, p. 369 (G 133* end)

II. Measuring public opinion/polling, pp. 386-389, including sample on 378F and The Pollsters (G 134-142* center)

A. Target population, lecture

B. Sample/representative sample (note use of telephone subscriber lists)

1. Random sample

2. Stratified sample

C. Tracking: polling done on a frequent basis to detect changing opinions,

pp. 387 [last paragraph]-388 [top]

D. Bias, pp. 369, 376-379, 386 [bottom]-387 [top]

1. Personal bias/schematic thinking/refusing to consider data, p. 369

2. Prominence cues in news placement, pp. 376-379

3. Wording of questions, pp. 386[bottom]-387[top]

E. Margin of error, lecture and http://www.latimes.com/HOME/NEWS/POLLS

or http://www.gallup.com/index.html / (G 151*) or http://gallup.com/rating/

III. Media concentration; corporate dominance of news sources, pp. 374-376 (ch.9, G 238 end-241)

A. Broadcast media (ch.9, G 237 end-238)

1. ABC/Disney

2. CBS/ Westinghouse

3. NBC/General Electric

4. CNN/Time-Warner [Ted Turner] (ch.9, G 240 center)

5. Fox/News Corporation [Rupert Murdoch]

B. Print media (including endorsement, p. 377)

1. New York Times

2. Washington Post

3. Los Angeles Times

C. Non-corporate, public, “alternative media,” and FAIR

1. Christian Science Monitor

2. Public Broadcasting System: television and radio

3. Pacific Foundation, including KPFK-FM

4...Internet (for example, http://www.smpcollege.com/smp_govt/ for survey of student attitudes

IV. Propaganda techniques

A. Positive or negative words, phrases and expressions to create a desired emotion

B. Bandwagon appeal to activate the fear of being different

C. “Just plain folks”

D. Testimonial and endorsement

E. Card stacking

V. Definitions:

Voter turnout (ch.7, G 179 center), political efficacy (G 131* top and end),

Vietnam (G 136* and ch. 6, G 165), party coalitions/party identification

10/28/01