Special Interests and Mass Media - AP Government and Politics

The most important impact of television is the agenda setting. News networks can choose what stories get the top of the hour and how much time to spend on them.

As early as 5 years old, young people start to assimilate and have affective feelings on political subjects provided by their interactions with their parents and family. This process continues until they form their own political worldview.

Libel, also known as defamation or slander, is the practice of publishing or communicating false information designed to specifically target and weaken the reputation of another group or individual.

One of the key elements of modern campaigning is the television campaign commercial, which by its very nature has certain attributes. Among these are simplified appeals to a party base, attacks against opponents, simplified messages, and a focus on images. The one thing a short television advertisement cannot do is delve into a substantial discussion of the major issues in the campaign.

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s "fireside chats" were deeply important and influential to the people of the United States, particularly during World War Two. It was a means for the President to communicate directly with the American people to keep them informed about the war effort and the state of the economy. Roosevelt realized the great potential for mass media in keeping in contact with the masses, and it was a contributing factor to his overwhelming popularity (although not the greatest contributing factor—recovering economy and war patriotism were far more valuable).

Yellow journalism focused on sensationalism- violence, romance, patriotism, and exposes of government, politics, business, and society. The four incorrect answers deal with everyday news events, despite the exclamation points at the end. "Yellow journalism" would encourage reporters to investigate any scandals regardless of their validity, and if higher officials could be connected with outrageous headlines would be all the more sensational.

Hyperpluralism is the political theory that government policy, and ability to enact laws for the good of the nation, is heavily weakened by the various competing interest groups, who all demand a say in government. Often these groups contradict one another and slow down the overall process of government policy-making.

The Taft-Hartley Act was designed to reduce the impact of labor unions in the United States and, as such, would logically have the support of many members of Congress (who answer to businessmen more than they do to the working classes), but would be less likely to have the support of the President. The Act was passed in 1947, after it was vetoed by Harry Truman, who believed the Act would enforce a type of “wage slavery” in the United States; however, Congress overturned Truman’s veto and the Act passed.

Members of an interest group all share the same position on one specific issue, whether it is religious, social, political, or moral. Their main goal is to use lobbying, media campaigns, polls, and research to influence the public in favor of their beliefs. In this way, they are able to catch the attention of presidential candidates.

Jonathan Rauch is a political and economic writer who coined the term “demosclerosis” to refer to the loss of government power in the years since World War II, more specifically to the stagnation of the ability of government to affect policy change because of the increased power of special interest groups who effectively hold the government hostage.

Pluralism asserts that the best system is one that represents as many or all possible interests. This allows for the competition of many different interests until a decision can be reached. Some of the answers may be the outcome of a success of the pluralist system. And the most wealthy option represents the elite theory.

Unlike political parties, interest groups do not in fact put forth candidates to run for public office. While they do often support and/or endorse candidates, it is considered a suspicious conflict of interest for any interest group to actually nominate a candidate. This fact also partially results from the specific nature of interest groups– because interest groups focus on only a few select issues, with a serious depth of knowledge only in these few areas, it would be quite difficult to nominate a candidate who would be merely a specialist amongst the other generalist nominees of every other political party.

Elitist theorists believe that the government is, in fact, controlled by a small circle of select elite individuals whose monetary resources allow them to reign all-powerfully behind the scenes in Washington, D.C. Due to this belief, elitist theorists therefore take a derisive view of lobbying, dismissing the practice as ineffective, corrupt, and useless. The average citizen, no matter how passionately he or she may lobby the government, is helpless to even match, let alone truly combat, the massive bases of power and influence which the elite inner circle enjoys. Large corporations and extremely wealthy individuals are able to hire entire units of highly skilled lobbyists to continually assail the government on their employers’ behalf, so that ordinary people, who have no great collection of money, perks, or influence to offer, are hopelessly drowned out. By and large, elitist theorists thus denounce lobbying as a futile practice, which only ends up benefitting those already in the best position to profit– aka the elite.

"Electioneering" is a general term that encompasses every overt but legal method by which interest groups and their lobbyists are directly involved in politics. The most frequently used electioneering tactic is the creation and organization of PACs– the majority of interest groups highly prioritize funding the electoral campaigns of candidates whom they see as somehow favorable or aligned with their cause. Other popular electioneering strategies include loaning staffers to help manage campaign efforts, sponsoring advertisements, and helping to organize rallies and other venues at which citizens are urged to demonstrate their support for a group’s preferred candidate.

James Madison wrote a great deal about interest groups (which in his day were called “factions”), which he saw as unfortunate but necessary evils whose efforts and machinations must be diligently circumvented. Madison was keenly suspicious of any and all interest groups, especially those which profess to be working for the public good– according to Madison, such claims are merely an elaborate façade meant to disguise the selfish motives which nearly every single group seeks to further. A double-edged difficulty thus faces the nation, or so Madison believed: a democratic society must not seek to silence the voices of those citizens who band together to exert their will upon their government but neither can a democratic society allow one group to ride roughshod over the rights of any other. Madison’s proposed solution involves allowing interest groups to exist but under carefully controlled conditions, with corruption minimized as much as possible and as many groups permitted to operate as is feasible, in the hopes that their vast numbers will serve as a simple system of checks and balances.

Rather than being a solution, in fact, hyperpluralists decry iron triangles as the most damaging part of the modern interest group politics. Iron triangles are more generally known as lesser governmental organizations, in which interest group leaders join with relevant government agencies and congressional members to control policy decisions and implementation. This cooperation between leaders of interest groups, agencies, and congressional committees constitutes an unfair monopoly of power– or so hyperpluralist theorists allege. Members of Congress draft and sponsor favorable laws and government agencies carry out and uphold these directives, so that by banding together, these individuals together are able to wield far-reaching control over government activities. Each of these three groups thus forms one side of the triangle, while the so-called “iron” is provided by the inflexible stores of power which the triangle’s members amass.

Political Action Committees are most likely to support an incumbent seeking reelection. Political Actions Committees are groups set up to ensure the election of one candidate over another.

Interest groups have a wide range of processes that are intended to affect the country's laws and policies, depending on what branch of the government and what kind of law the group is trying to change. Regarding the legislative process, their chief activity in effecting change is through lobbying members of Congress to help craft and pass legislation.

The correct answer is the revolving door. The iron triangle refers to the people who influence the creation of legislation. Gerrymandering involved drawing borders for electoral districts. Pork barrel and logrolling are types of legislative practices that involve trading favors to get the best outcome for one’s constituents.