BELLWORK
What is public
opinion?
(Page 514)
REMINDER (Periods 3, 4, 6 & 7)
Chapter 18 Assessment:
1-20
Pages 524-525
Due Thursday, April 16th
PRESIDENTIAL SPEECH PRESENTATION (Period 4)
COLLECT (Periods 1 & 5)
Pass forward Interest
Group Posters.
TAKE NOTES OF ANYTHING IN:
BLACK
Shaping
Public
Opinion
CHAPTER 18, SECTION 3
Essential Question:
How can public opinion be
changed?
The Nature of Public Opinion
•Public opinion is the ideas and attitudes that a
significant number of Americans hold about
government and political issues.
•Public opinion is significant to politics because it has an
enormous influence on gov’t.
•There are three factors that characterize the nature of
public opinion.
• Diversity: opinions are varied since nobody thinks exactly the same.
• Communication: opinions must be expressed to gov’t, like through
interest groups.
• Significant Numbers: a substantial amount must hold the same
opinion in order for gov’t to consider the opinion.
Political Socialization
•Personal background and life experiences have important
influences on the way opinions form.
•Throughout the course of one’s life, their political beliefs
and attitudes will be influenced by factors such as family,
school/church peers, social characteristics like
economic/social status, and the mass media.
•Political efficacy refers to a person’s belief that he or she
has an impact on politics.
• Some people do not believe that they can impact the system
while others believe that their actions can be effective and lead
to changes within the government.
Political Culture, Ideology and
Public Policy
•Political culture is a set of basic values and beliefs
about a nation and its government that most citizen
share.
• For example, a belief in liberty and freedom is one of the key
elements of the American political culture.
•An ideology is a set of basic beliefs about life, culture,
gov’t, and society.
• The majority of Americans determine their positions on an
issue-by-issue basis rather than from a strict ideology.
• These ideologies include liberal, conservative and
moderate.
Quick-Write
Although we are looking further into the
mass media next week, try to answer
this with the knowledge you already
have, “Do you think that the mass media
have too much influence on American
public opinion? Why or why not.”
(4-6 Sentences)
Measuring
Public
Opinion
CHAPTER 18, SECTION 4
Essential Question:
How is public opinion
measured?
Nonscientific Methods
•In order for politicians to know what the public is
thinking, methods are used to figure out public opinion.
• Nonscientific methods of analyzing public opinion
include using political parties and interest groups,
mass media, letters and emails, straw pols, and
political websites.
•A straw poll does not use scientific procedures to
choose the respondents, rather, it uses people who
want to partake in the poll voluntarily.
• This usually causes a biased sample of the population. Biased
sample is polling a small group that does not accurately
represent the larger population.
The Science of Public Opinion Polls
Fill-in-the Blank: The smaller the ____-_-____ the more _____ a poll is.
Scientific Polling
•Most politicians today use scientific polls to measure
public opinion.
• Scientific polling involves three basic steps:
1. Selecting a sample of the group to be questioned
2. Presenting a carefully worded question or questions to the
individuals in the sample.
3. Interpreting the results.
•A sampling error is a measurement of how much
the sample results of a scientific poll might differ
from the actual number. Usually, the results of a
poll will say that the error is only plus or minus 3
percent off.
Scientific Polling
•Polling has improved greatly since the 1930s,
however it is still far from being completely
accurate, and it never will be completely accurate.
•An election exit poll is a poll taken immediately
after voters have exited their polling station.
Usually news broadcasters such as Fox News and
CNN will conduct exit polls to gain an indication as
to how an election has turned out because in some
elections the actual results might take days to
count.
Pros & Cons of Public Opinion Polls
Write down at least three pros and three cons mentioned in the video.
Closing Activity
Do you think the pros of public polling out
weigh the cons? Should this practice be
eliminated or is it too important? What could
be done to public polling in order to make it
more reliable? Is there another way you can
think of that would be more accurate and
beneficial than public polling?
(10-14 Sentences)
Presidential Debate (Period 3, 4, 6 & 7)
Tomorrow, you will receive a list of
possible questions you might be
asked during the presidential
debate on Wednesday. Make sure
to study the questions so you will
be prepared.