Chapter Five:
Public Opinion, Political
Socialization and the Media
Learning Outcomes
LO 1 Define public opinion, consensus opinion, and divided opinion, and
discuss major sources of political socialization, including the family,
schools, the media, and political events.
LO 2 Identify the effects of various influences on voting behavior, including
education, income, religion, race/ethnicity, and geography.
LO 3 Describe the characteristics of a scientific opinion poll, and list some of
the problems pollsters face in obtaining accurate results.
LO 4 Consider the effect that public opinion may have on the political
process.
LO 5 Describe the different types of media and the changing roles that they
play in American society.
LO 6 Summarize the impact of the media on political campaigns, and
consider the issue of political bias in the media.
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Public Opinion and Political
Socialization
 Consensus and Divided Opinion
 Forming Public Opinion: Political
Socialization
 The family
 Education as a source of political socialization
 Peers and peer group influence
 Opinion leaders’ influence
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Pastor Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven
Life, speaks to a conference on AIDS in Washington,
D.C. Is Warren an opinion leader?
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Consensual Opinion
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Divided Opinion
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Public Opinion and Political
Socialization
 The Media and Public Opinion
 The popularity of the media
 The impact of new media
 Political Events and Public Opinion
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The Influence of Demographic
Factors
 Educational Achievement
 Economic Status
 Religious Denomination
 Religious Commitment and Beliefs
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The Influence of Demographic
Factors
 Race and Ethnicity
 The Hispanic Vote
A Latino woman and her
eighteen-month-old daughter
march to the White House in
support of immigration reform.
How is the daughter acquiring
political values by attending a
rally with her mother?
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The Influence of Demographic
Factors
 The Gender Gap
 Geographic Region
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Measuring Public Opinion
 The History of Opinion Polls
 Sampling Techniques
 The statistical nature of polling
 Sampling error
Harry Truman won the presidential election in
1948 despite the prediction of most opinion
polls that he would lose. Would a newspaper
today make such an inaccurate prediction
and put it on newsstands?
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Measuring Public Opinion
 The Difficulty of Obtaining Accurate
Results
 Weighting the sample
 House effects
 How accurate are the results?
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Measuring Public Opinion
 Additional Problems with Polls
 Poll Questions
 Unscientific and Fraudulent Polls
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Presidential Election Polling
Click picture to play video
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Presidential Election Polling
Taking a closer look:
1. Have you ever participated in a political poll?
Did you feel the questions were biased toward a
candidate or political viewpoint?
2. Is sample size or sampling technique more
important in polling accuracy?
3. How can political polling increase voter apathy
among certain demographic groups?
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Public Opinion and the Political
Process
 Political Culture and Public Opinion
 Political trust
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Public Opinion and the Political
Process
 The Most Important Problems
 Public Opinion and Policymaking
 Politicians make own decisions
 Trade-offs
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The Roles of the Media
 The Roles of the Media
 Entertainment
 Reporting the news
 Identifying public problems
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The Roles of the Media
 The Roles of the Media
 Socializing new generations
 Providing a political forum
 Making profits
 The financial crisis of the press
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The Roles of the Media
 Television versus the New Media
 New patterns of media consumption
 The continuing influences of television
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Political blogger Ezra
Klein of the Washington
Post has become well
known as a guest host on
the Rachel Maddow
television show. Are
political blogs influential?
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The Media and Political Campaigns
 Political Advertising
 “Daisy Girl”
 Management of News Coverage
 Spin doctors
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President Lyndon Johnson’s “Daisy Girl” ad contrasted the
innocence of childhood with the horror of an atomic attack.
Would such a campaign ad be effective today?
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The Media and Political Campaigns
 Going for the Knockout—Presidential
Debates
 The 2011-2012 Republican primary debates
 Obama versus Romney
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The Media and Political Campaigns
 Political Campaigns and the Internet
 Bias in the Media
 Alternative forms of bias
 Bias and professionalism
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Proud to be an American
Click picture to play video
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Proud to be an American
Taking a closer look:
1. What forms of political socialization are
evident in the video?
2. Do all Americans share the same political
values? Why or why not?
3. How do media “sound bites” affect public
opinion? Does this play too large a role in
modern political campaigns?
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