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Factors Affecting Public Opinon Public Officials When voters elect people to office, they put their trust in those officials and rely on their opinions. People who share a similar point of view about an issue sometimes work together to promote that point of view. Such a group is called an interest group.
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Chapter 8-1Public Opinion
Terms: public opinion, mass media, interest group, pollster
Factor Affecting Public Opinion
• Public opinion is a term that refers to the attitudes or opinions of a large group of people about a particular issue or person.
• Factors that affect a person’s opinion:1.Age, gender, income, hobbies, race, religion,
occupation, economic situation.• Mass media ie. T.V., radio, newspapers, and magazines.
1.Media influence public opinion by the numbers they reach and by how the cover issues and events. Media can emphasize certain issues and events and downplay other in ways that can infuence people’s opinions.
Factors Affecting Public Opinon
•Public Officials•When voters elect people to office,
they put their trust in those officials and rely on their opinions.
•People who share a similar point of view about an issue sometimes work together to promote that point of view. Such a group is called an interest group.
Measuring Public Opinion
• One way to gauge public opinion is through elections.1.generally this is not a good way to measure
opinion because people vote based on appearance, straight party ticket, etc.
2.The most accurate way is through public opinion polls.
3.Gallup and Harris are the 2 most well known. They ask about 1,500 people their opinions on an issue, pollsters can get an accurate idea of how most American feel about that issue.
Measuring Public Opinion
•Pollsters usually question a group of people selected at random all over the United States. They have found that such a random sample will probably include people of nearly all races, incomes, gender, ages and veiw points. This paints a reasonably accurate picture of public opinion.
•Pollsters have to be careful how they word questions.
Measuring Public Opinion
•Political polls1.Critics feel like polls affect
public opinion by influencing you to vote for a leading candidate.
2.Sometimes it could have the opposite effect by influencing people NOT to vote.
Terms• public opinion: is a term that refers to the
attitudes or opinions of a large group of people about a particular issue or person.
• mass media: news information sources that include t.v., radio, newpaper, and magazines.
• interest group: people who share a similar point of view about an issue sometimes work together to promote that point of view.
• pollster: the people who take polls.
