1 / 12

Public Opinion

Public Opinion. What is Public Opinion?. Overt expression of values , beliefs , and attitudes by some segment of society. Values: basic orientation to politics and life Beliefs: perceptions of reality Attitudes: positive or negative orientations toward an object

rowena
Download Presentation

Public Opinion

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Public Opinion

  2. What is Public Opinion? • Overt expression of values, beliefs, and attitudes by some segment of society. • Values: basic orientation to politics and life • Beliefs: perceptions of reality • Attitudes: positive or negative orientations toward an object • Not strictly limited to politics and government.

  3. How Do We Measure Public Opinion? • Usually measured via public opinion polls (surveys). • Sometimes from focus groups • What do we learn from polls? • Values, attitudes, beliefs • Facts • Behavior • Sampling procedures. • Population vs. Sample • Random vs. non-random (biased) • Sample size

  4. Problems with Survey Questions • Question wording is another potential source of error • Sensitive questions • Biased questions • Confusing questions • Non-attitudes

  5. Where to Get Public Opinion Information • www.pollingreport.com • www.gallup.com

  6. How Are Opinions Formed? • Political Socialization • Retrospective Modification

  7. Political Socialization • Explicit or implicit • Agents of socialization • Family • Schools • Peers • Adult socialization

  8. Retrospective Modification • Socialization AND political experiences • Looks something like this: Political Events SocializationOpinion Mass Media

  9. The Role of the Media • Inform • Agenda setting • Framing • Persuasion

  10. Attitudes, Beliefs, and Values • Short-term attitudes and beliefs • Candidate evaluations, issues, etc. • Long-term attitudes and beliefs • Party affiliation, efficacy, trust • Core values • Democratic principles, ideology • Political knowledge

  11. Public opinion and public policy • Evidence of congruence • Evidence of incongruence • Explanations

  12. Opinion gaps • Education • Sex • Race • Religion

More Related