Majority Culture

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Majority Culture

• Mr. Greens American Government

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Outline of the Lecture

• The Turn Toward Big Government
• The New Deal
• The Progressive Judiciary
• Majority Culture
• The Imperial Presidency
• The New Ideologies

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Majority Culture

• Public Opinion and The Majority

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Tocqueville
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Majority Culture

• Public Opinion and The Majority
• Importance of the Median Voter

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1964
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1972
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Tocqueville
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Majority Culture

• Public Opinion and The Majority
• Importance of the Median Voter
• Average Median Voter is Irrational
• Votes Based on Passion and Emotion of the Moment
• Voters Are Malleable

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Majority Culture

• Voters Are Malleable
• John Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent Society, 1958

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Majority Culture

• The Majority and Public Opinion
• Public Opinion and the Media
• Informed and Uninformed Public

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Tocqueville
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Majority Culture

• The Majority and Public Opinion
• Public Opinion and the Media
• Informed and Uninformed Public
• Ideologically Consistent and Non-Ideological
  Public

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Tocqueville
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Majority Culture

• The Majority and Public Opinion
• Public Opinion and the Media
• Informed and Uninformed Public
• Ideologically Consistent and Non-Ideological
  Public
• The Myth of the Rational Voter and Importance of
  a Neutral Media

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The Media

• News
• The Newspapers
• The Broadcast Networks
• Cable and Internet News
• Opinion
• Editorial Pages and Opinion Magazines
• Taking Heads Shows
• Talk Radio
• Internet Blogs

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Media Neutrality

• The News
• An Account of Obtruding Events . . .
• That are Timely
• That are Dramatic
• That are Compelling
• The News is a Business
• The Sensational Bias
• The Negative Bias

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The Media
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News Culture

• Newspapers in the Early Republic
• Partisan Opinion
• Rise of the Mass Media
• Penny Press
• Sensationalism
• Pulitzer, Hurst, and the Spanish American War

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Pulitzer, Hearst, and the Yellow Press
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News Culture

• Newspapers in the Early Republic
• Partisan Opinion
• Rise of the Mass Media
• Penny Press
• Sensationalism
• Neutral Reporting The News Pages and the
  Editorial Pages

• Radio
• FDRs Fireside Chats

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Fireside Chats
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News Culture

• Newspapers in the Early Republic
• Partisan Opinion
• Rise of the Mass Media
• Penny Press
• Radio
• Television
• Kennedy Nixon Debate

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Kennedy-Nixon Debate
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The News Culture

• The New Idealistic Journalists
• In it to Make A Difference
• Civil Rights
• Egalitarian Values
• Concern and Support for Race, Ethnicity, Gender,
  Sexual Preference
• Anti-Capitalist
• Vietnam
• Support for Cosmopolitan Values
• Youth Culture Sexual Liberation and Drugs
• Support for Secular Values
• Watergate

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The New Journalistic Consensus

• The New Idealistic Journalists
• Distrust of the Political Right
• Disgust with Capitalist Values
• Concern about Traditional Values
• Fear of Nationalist Values
• The Leftist Intellectual Class

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Media Bias

• A Reports Is Not the Event Itself It Is a
  Journalists Account Of Event.
• Journalists Account
• Selection Reporter gives the facts but must
  chose which are included and which facts are left
  out
• Context Reporter gives background, setting, etc.
  so that the facts have meaning
• Gloss

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Gloss
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Media Bias

• A Report Is Not the Event Itself It Is a
  Journalists Account Of Event.
• Journalists Account
• Selection
• Context
• Gloss Reporter declares, or instructs, or
  announces the lesson the reader is to draw from
  the reporting.

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Public Perception
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Public Perception
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Ideology of the Media
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Ideology of the Media
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Ideology of the Media
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Ideology of the Media
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Ideology of the Media
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Ideology of the Media
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Dr. Tim Groseclose and Dr. Jeff Milyo, A Study of
Media Bias, 2004
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Partisan Press

• George Soros
• moveon.org

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George Soros
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Partisan Press

• George Soros
• Rupert Murdock
• Fox News
• The Wall Street Journal

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Rupert Murdoch
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Partisan Media

• George Soros
• Rupert Murdock
• Fox News
• The Wall Street Journal
• Conservative Talk Radio and the Liberal Blogs
• Rush Limbaugh
• moveon.org

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Rush Limbaugh
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Majority Culture

• The Majority and Public Opinion
• Public Opinion and the Media
• Measuring Public Opinion
• Winning Politicians Seek the Median Voter
• Follow or Manipulate Public Opinion
• Polls
• Focus Groups

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Polling

• The Representative Sample
• Sample Size
• Random Sample
• Problem of Haphazard Samples
• Every member of the population has an equal
  change of being surveyed.
• Eliminate Sample Bias
• Reliability
• Question Wording
• Close Ended (List of Choices)

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Problem of Question Wording
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Problem of Question Wording
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Problem of Question Wording
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Problem of Question Wording
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Measuring Public Opinion

• Polling
• The Representative Sample
• Sample Size
• Random Sample
• Reliability
• Question Wording
• Close Ended (List of Choices)
• Open Ended Questions (Most Accurate)

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The End