Media Influence - 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.

The majority of Americans get their news from television media, so we can rule out two of these answer choices. We can also firmly state that the credibility of the New York Times has been higher in the past, as it was recently rocked by a scandal when one of its regular contributors admitted he had fabricated news stories. Finally, although print media readership is declining, to claim that it is now obsolete is an extreme stretch. The only statement here that it is mostly accurate is that talk radio is primarily controlled by conservative voices. Talk radio emerged in the 1980s and 1990s and mixes partisan interviews with political commentary. It is usually conservative, but not exclusively.

Random sampling refers to a survey in which everyone has an equal possibility of being selected. It is considered a tenet of reliable survey methodology because it ensures as little bias will be inherent in the survey as is possible. The best example shown here is dialing random numbers that end with the number nine, this is entirely random and the only real bias it can generate is “people who own phones.” Dialing random numbers that begin with the number nine will select people based on area code; going to a high-end supermarket will select wealthier people; going to a football stadium will obviously select sports fans; calling people on thanksgiving will generate slightly different results than a normal day because people will be in unusual moods, either positively or negatively, and this example makes no mention of how the numbers are selected so would be poor survey practice.

The term "Yellow Journalism" refers to a type of reporting that presents sensationalized (and often inaccurate) accounts of events in order to attract readers and sell more papers. The sensationalized and potentially inaccurate accounts of the sinking of the U.S.S. Maine in newspapers published by William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer helped to lead to the Spanish-American War at the end of the 19th Century.

The Associated Press was formed at a time when "yellow journalism" was rampant. Because the AP was a subscription service that provided short, telegraphed stories to newspaper editors across the country, it had to be as neutral as possible in its reporting to attract a large subscriber base. This financially incentivized at least one form of journalism that was objective, as opposed to sensationalist.

There are three types of news stories that differ significantly in the opportunity for media bias. Routine stories about events that are regularly covered by many reporters are least likely to be biased because they tend to involve a simple accounting of events. For example, the President's trip to Martha's Vineyard for vacation is most likely to be a routine story.

The equal-time rule establishes that all broadcast stations must allow equal opportunity to all political parties to air campaign advertisements. The rule first appeared in the Radio Broadcast Act of 1927.

An Issue Advocacy Ad is an advertisement that generally airs during an election campaign, but does not focus on encouraging support for one candidate over another. Instead, it seeks to gain awareness for the issues and encourage voters to consider the issue as a whole as more relevant than they might otherwise.

While the internet makes it easier to take quick opinion polls, these polls are often highly unreliable because the pollsters are not able to take good samples, and the samples are self-selecting in that they consist of people who use the internet, navigate to the particular site, are willing to spend time to take the poll, etc. While the internet has provided many avenues for exploring public opinion, most of these are related to the collection of hard data (like internet usage), as opposed to effective or accurate opinion polling.

The Equal Time Rule holds that all publicly broadcast news stations that sell advertising to to one political candidate must sell equal time to that person's opponents.

Having an adversarial press in America means that, at least on a national level, the press is suspicious of public officials and will happily break embarrassing stories about them. The press' main interest is in writing stories that will allow them to sell newspapers, advertising, etc, rather than in promoting specific agenda items.

A "trial balloon" is information released to the media and framed as if it were an unintentional leak from an unnamed political source; however, the intention is for politicians who are debating a change in policy to observe how the public might react to such a change.

"Yellow journalism" is the name given to the practice of reporting shocking or abhorrent news stories for the sake of attracting new readers and selling more newspapers. Yellow journalism is generally considered manipulative and bad journalistic practice, but that has not stopped various forms of media throughout American history from participating in it. Yellow journalism is most closely associated with the newspapers of William Randolph Hearst who (some argue) single-handedly dragged the United States into war with Spain by reporting on various news stories inaccurately to characterize the Spanish as violent and barbaric. Partisan journalism is the name given to a media source that serves the interests of a political party above the interests of the general public.

"Common-carrier role" refers to the idea that the media acts as a vehicle through which political leaders can communicate with the general public. The "watchdog role" refers to the idea that the media acts as a servant of the people by keeping an eye on politicians, making sure they are not corrupt or negligible in office. Both of these terms relate to the role that the media plays in connecting the government to the people.