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23 Cards in this Set

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CPI/Committee on Public Information
President Woodrow Wilson argued that public opinion would temper the actions of international leaders, and therefore he created the Committee on Public Information eight days after the start of World War I. It was run by a prominent journalist, and it immediately sought to unite U.S. public opinion behind the war effort. It used pamphlets, posters, and speakers to garner support for the war. It was known as the "world's greatest adventure in adversising."
election forecasting
In 1824, one Pennsylvania newspaper tried to predict the winner of that year's presidential contest. Later, the Boston Globe sent reporters to selected election precints to poll voters as they exited booths so that they could predict the outcome of the election. In 1916, Literary Digest began sending a survey through the mail to potential voters to predict the outcome of the election. Election forecasting is predicting the outcome of an election before the fact. Until 1936, polls had been surprisingly accurate.
gender gap
The voting differences between men and women.
George Gallup
The founder of modern day polling and creator of the Gallup Poll.
impact of events on political values
Play a very important role in people's political socialization.
influences on political socialization
family (parents political beliefs/activism), school/peers, mass media, religion, race, gender, age, region
intensity issue
voters feelings on a particular issue; voters intensities (or lack of) cannot be gauged from surveys or polls
Literary Digest polls
popular and reputed method - and, at the time, accurate! - of predicting elections from 1920-32; miscalled the 1932 election because polls were not specific or tailored enough
margin of polling error
A measure of the accuracy of a public opinion poll.
The National Election Study: a biennial series of surveys conducted by social scientiests at the Center for Political Studies that focus on the political attitudes and behavior of the electorate.
political ideology
AN individual's coherent set of values and beliefs about the purpose and scope of government.
political knowledge/ignorance
That which one knows about politics.
political socializtion
The process through which an individual aquires particular political orientations; the learning process by which people aquire their political beliefs and values.
public opinion
public opinion polls
Interviews or surveys with a sample of citizens that are used to estimate public opinion of the entire population.
push polls
A public-opinion polling technique that is used to test possible campaign themes by asking very specific questions about an issue or candidate. Some unscrupulous campaigns have used the technique to push voters away from their opponent by including false or misleading information in their questions.
random sampling
A method of selection that gives each potential voter or adult the same chance of being selected.
sampling error on polls
A measure of the accuracy of a public opinion poll
shortcomings of polling
If they are inaccurate, the polls can skew the rest of a campaign either in favor or against a candidate by indicating that a candidate has either more or less support than he actually has. If voters find out that their favored candidate is doing exceptionally well or exceptionally poorly at the polls, they may not vote because they feel that it won't matter, and it ends up changing the results of the vote.
stratified sampling on polls
A variation of random sampling; Census data are used to divide a country into four sampling regions. Sets of counties and statndard mentropolitan statistical areas are then randomly selected in proportion to the total national population.
straw polls
Unscientific surveys used to gauge public opinion on a variety of issues and policies.
tracking polls
Walter Lippmann/Public Opinion