Chap. 9 and 10 Media and Elections

  

Journalists tend to be liberal

  • Between 1964 and 2004, Republicans won the White House seven times compared with four Democratic victories. But if only journalists’ ballots were counted, the Democrats would have won every time

Rise of Mass Media – NEW ERA!   (TV, Internet, Print…)

  • The Selling of the President, 1968

  • Issue v Image

  • Photo op/Staged event

  • Negative campaigning

  • Mud slinging

  • Horse race coverage

VOCAB:

  • Spin

  • Media bias

  • political socialization

  • “Talking head”

  • spot ads

  • sound bite

  • Polls: exit, push

  • Trial Balloons

•Serious Issue: What IS News?

 

Propaganda

  • Name Calling

  • Transfer

  • Propaganda

  • Bandwagon

  • Testimonial

  • Card-stacking

  • Glittering generality

  • Plain Folks

Chap 10 Elections Vocabulary

  • Winner-take-all.

  • Plurality.

  • Primary election.

  • General Election.

  • Caucus.

  • Party base.

  • Stump speech.

  • Coattail effect.

10.2 Advance of Suffrage

  • Andrew Jackson-universal male suffrage

  • 15th Amendment. Race

  • 19th, 1920. Women

  • 24th, 1964 Banned poll tax

  • 26th, 1971.  18 year olds.

  • Now-easier voter registration, MotorVoter

  • BUT, the problem of voter turnout

10.3 Nominating

  • Primaries: Closed, Open (raiding)

  • Caucus.

  • War chest, campaign strategy, slogans

  • Retail politics. Direct, personal contact

  • Wholesale politics. Large scale media

  • National conventions.

10.4

  • Presidential Election: 1st Mon after 1st Tu in Nov, in even years

  • 3 types of general election:

  • 1.Presidential

  • 2.Midterm

  • 3.Off-year, local

 Building a winning coalition: motivate the base and move to the center…

 

10.4 Electoral College

  • Winner take all

  • Battleground states

  • Proportional Representation

  • Formula=# inCongress

  • 270 (of 538)

  • Reform of Electoral College?

  • It’s undemocratic. 1876, 1888, 2000

Proposals to Change the Electoral College:

  1. Simply use the popular vote. (Const. Amend. needed)

  2. Count vote by congressional district

  3. States vote to cast their electoral votes for the winner of the popular vote (no C Amend. Needed)

  4. Strategies in light of Electoral College

10.5 Financing Campaigns

  • Shift from parties to indiv candidates

  • $-500,000 House of Rep-5 million Senate

  • Two strategies people use in giving

  • Electoral

  • Access

  • Limits on giving

  • Indiv 2300

  • PAC 5000

  • $ources of financing campaigns:

  • Individuals, Candidate, Party, PAC

•10.5 Financing Campaigns

  • Campaign Finance Reform Act, 2002 (McCain-Feingold Act)

  • Two problems it tried to solve:

  • 1. Soft $ donated to a Political Party

  • 2. Issue ads from interest groups.

  • “I approved this ad..”

 

10.6 Voter Behavior

  • Who votes: Age, education, income

  • Vocab:

  • Incumbent

  • Swing voters (independents, vote on issues)

  • Views of nonvoting:

  • 1. Has negative effects-they can be ignored, they have no representation

  • 2. Nonvoting represents a basic satisfaction

  • Should voting be mandatory?