Deck 4: Public Opinion and the Mass Media

Question 1

The process by which a society's political culture is transmitted from one generation to the next is known as

A)rhetoric.
B)political socialization.
C)political education.
D)political party preference.
E)public opinion.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Generally,people with higher incomes,more education,and higher job status tend to vote

A)Democratic.
B)Republican.
C)for independents.
D)for the Green Party.
E)They don't generally vote.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

With regard to political socialization,the earliest and perhaps most powerful influence on a person is

A)social class.
B)race and religion.
C)place of residence.
D)the family.
E)the media.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

If each individual in the entire population has an equal opportunity to be selected for analysis,this is an example of a(n)

A)tracking poll.
B)lottery system.
C)focus group.
D)random sample.
E)exit poll.

Question 5

Scientific polling is based on

A)straw polls.
B)mathematical probability.
C)relatively large sample sizes.
D)the normal distribution.
E)focus groups.

Question 6

Which of the following is NOT a powerful influence on one's political socialization?

A)Media
B)Peer group
C)Voting
D)History and political events
E)Family

Question 7

The American public has become __________ unpopular political ideas in recent decades.

A)more tolerant of
B)less tolerant of
C)more militant toward
D)uninterested with
E)hostile toward

Question 8

Conducting a face-to-face public opinion poll is an example of

A)survey research.
B)case study analysis.
C)experimental research.
D)naturalistic observation.
E)muckraking.

Question 9

Which of the following best describes the conclusion of a CNN study about the election night news coverage of the 2000 presidential election in Florida?

A)A simple mistake
B)A reckless debacle
C)An unfortunate confluence of events
D)An intentional effort to influence the outcome of the election
E)A misunderstanding

Question 10

Which one of the following would be a salient issue for most Americans?

A)Aid for farmers growing corn in Illinois
B)Antitrust laws
C)Policies toward small business
D)Aid to a small island nation in Asia
E)The state of the economy

Question 11

Which method is used to choose a representative sample for a public opinion poll?

A)Haphazard sampling
B)Computer simulation
C)Double-blind studies
D)Random sampling
E)Focus groups

Question 12

Today,the most important method used to measure public opinion is

A)straw polling.
B)status polling.
C)scientific polling.
D)the tracking poll.
E)the exit poll.

Question 13

If a political opinion is held by a small portion of society,it is said to be

A)stable.
B)intense.
C)concentrated.
D)salient.
E)populated.

Question 14

Of the following,who is most likely to be a Democrat?

A)A doctor
B)A business executive
C)A lawyer
D)A laborer
E)A stock broker

Question 15

Public opinion polls are most accurate

A)during primary elections.
B)if they are exit polls.
C)if they are focus group polls.
D)if they exclude cell phone users.
E)when they have low margins of error.

Question 16

Political culture is

A)created by the media to make money from the government.
B)specified in Article IV of the Constitution.
C)the set of values supported by a society that conflict with the body politic.
D)the set of fundamental,widely supported values that hold a society together and give legitimacy to its political institutions.
E)the set of sharply divisive,partisan views toward current political issues such as health care, abortion,and prayer in schools.

Question 17

The process of political socialization begins

A)when college professors begin speaking of politics.
B)in high school as young adults begin forming their opinions on politics.
C)in early childhood.
D)as an adult once one has a vested interest in government when he or she begins to pay taxes.
E)once people begin using the Internet and sampling other media sources.

Question 18

Which one of the following is true of the influence of place of residence on political opinion?

A)Since the 1970s most suburbs of America's cities have been Democratic.
B)The Rocky Mountain states have always been a Democratic stronghold.
C)Since the 1950s,the Republican Party has become the majority or competitive in all southern states.
D)Since the 1950s,the South has shifted away from the Democratic Party and toward independent candidates.
E)Since the 1960s,the suburbs of America's cities have shifted away from the Republican Party and toward independent candidates.

Question 19

Which of the following best describes yellow journalism?

A)Late-breaking news
B)Sensational coverage
C)Fact-based reporting of important news events
D)Broadcast media
E)Partisan press

Question 20

Although almost all Americans support the basic goals of democracy,there is less agreement when it comes to the application of

A)election laws.
B)fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the founders.
C)democratic procedures.
D)American civil law.
E)separation of powers and checks and balances.

Question 21

Participation rates for Americans in the political system beyond mere voting are generally

A)below 3 percent.
B)below 10 percent.
C)about 25 percent.
D)about 35 percent.
E)slightly more than 50 percent.

Question 22

Family tends to have a great effect on a person's later interest in politics.

Question 23

The process by which a society's political culture is transmitted from one generation to the next is known as political socialization.

Question 24

Which one of the following is true with respect to newspapers in the United States?

A)Newspaper circulation has remained relatively stable.
B)Newspapers remain the most popular source of news in America.
C)Newspaper circulation and advertising revenues have increased slightly in recent years as more Americans are turning to the want ads.
D)Newspaper circulation had dropped,but no major newspapers have gone bankrupt.
E)Newspaper circulation has fallen and some major papers have gone bankrupt.

Question 25

How did Bill Clinton use the results of focus groups to change his 1996 campaign strategy?

A)The campaign appealed more to the left to win the support of environmental groups.
B)The campaign became more conservative to appeal to moderate voters.
C)The campaign decided that it needed to solidify its Democratic base.
D)The campaign focused on winning the Southern vote.
E)The campaign used more straw polls to gauge public opinion.

Question 26

Reporter,agenda setter,and investigator are terms used to describe

A)the roles of spin doctors that attempt to use the media to gain exposure.
B)campaign moles that are used to infiltrate opposing campaigns.
C)the roles of the media in the political sphere.
D)the roles of senior campaign advisors in presidential elections.
E)the roles of those who perform research on opposing political campaigns.

Question 27

Which of the following is a short,punchy campaign message that is designed to play well on television?

A)Negative ad
B)Market segment
C)Sound bite
D)Saturation
E)Socialization

Question 28

The Internet is likely to favor insurgent candidates with a strong message.

Question 29

The term salience refers to a political opinion held by a small portion of society.

Question 30

The average length of a political spot advertisement is about

A)three seconds.
B)ten seconds.
C)thirty seconds.
D)sixty seconds.
E)ninety seconds.

Question 31

In terms of political participation,people from lower socioeconomic classes tend to

A)participate the most.
B)participate at about the same rate as the typical American.
C)participate the least.
D)participate more for local elections and less for national elections.
E)participate more during primary elections and less during general elections.

Question 32

Which of the following most accurately describes the ideology of those in the media?

A)Nearly all journalists are liberal.
B)Nearly all journalists are conservative.
C)About half of journalists are liberal and about half are conservative.
D)Reporters are more likely to be liberal and publishers are more likely to be conservative.
E)Reporters are more likely to be conservative and owners are more likely to be liberal.

Question 33

The Internet is especially useful to political campaigns for

A)providing more access to people the campaigns would not have otherwise met.
B)permitting campaigns to answer more questions about their candidacies.
C)fund-raising.
D)developing campaign slogans.
E)voter registration.

Question 34

The term intensity refers to how strongly a political opinion is held.

Question 35

Television advertising is essential in today's campaigns.In fact,television advertising accounts for how much of the budget in a typical statewide campaign?

A)10 percent
B)Two-thirds
C)One-half
D)Practically all
E)20 percent

Question 36

Which one of the following is true with respect to cell phones?

A)Pollsters have been contacting people on their cell phones since cell phones were first introduced.
B)By 2007,more than 85 percent of American homes possessed only cell phones.
C)The existence of cell phones makes it easier to select a representative sample.
D)Cell phones are automatically disqualified from participation in scientific polls.
E)The first pollster did not contact people on cell phones until January 2008.

Question 37

When political campaigns first started using the Internet,they were most likely to use it to

A)attract volunteers.
B)blog.
C)get out the vote.
D)conduct polling.
E)track their opponents.

Question 38

Exit polls

A)are used on Election Day to predict the outcome.
B)were outlawed by Congress after the 2000 presidential election debacle in Florida.
C)are conducted in the weeks leading up to an election.
D)allow a campaign to measure how the public responds to various campaign events.
E)are primarily used by candidates to adjust their campaign strategies.

Question 39

Which of the following best describes negative campaign advertising?

A)The public enjoys negative campaign advertising.
B)It has been prohibited by recent campaign finance reform laws.
C)The public dislikes it,but consultants claim that it works.
D)It is effective at the presidential level but not at the congressional level.
E)Most major presidential candidates avoid using negative ads.

Question 40

The rise and fall of public interest in the issue of American dependence upon foreign oil is an example of

A)the reporter function of the media.
B)the agenda-setter function of the media.
C)the investigator function of the media.
D)the consolidation function of the media.
E)the muckraker function of the media.

Question 41

Focus groups are an example of scientific polling.

Question 42

A few large corporations own an increasing number of media outlets.

Question 43

The use of negative advertising has increased in recent election campaigns.

Question 44

The American public's trust in the news media remains high.

Question 45

Polling organizations consider their results to be accurate if they have a margin of error of 5 to 10 percent.

Question 46

The Internet is the most influential agent of political socialization.

Question 47

The number of people who watch the CBS,NBC,or ABC evening news shows is currently less than half of the number who watched in 1980.

Question 48

Groups with the highest participation rates are most likely to receive benefits from the government.

Question 49

For most Americans,U.S.policy toward small business is a salient issue.

Question 50

The exit poll is primarily used to indicate changes in voter preferences from election to election.

Question 51

The term sound bite was developed out of the advertising industry's recognition that people are likely to remember short,punchy messages.

Question 52

The Democratic Party dominates the South.

Question 53

Choosing a relatively small number of cases to be studied for information about the larger population is a process known as sampling.

Question 54

A sample is any group or organization that shares the same views.

Question 55

Americans are most likely to get their political news from television.