American Political Communication and Polling: Key Concepts

Political Parties and Voter Identification

Which of these can be about political parties since 1960?

B) People feel a stronger sense of identification with their political party.

Consumer-Like Voter Behavior

Which one of the following is not a characteristic of a voter thinking like a consumer?

A voter will not change his or her mind once they have chosen their candidate.

History of Political Polling in the US

We know that political polling in the US has been around since at least:

1824

Early Political Polling

Political polling in US began as:

Ballots printed in magazines.

Media and Polling

The "Dewey Defeats Truman" headline in the Chicago Daily Tribune is an example of what?

Media trusting in inaccurate polling data.

Effects of Polls on Electorate

When voters are bombarded by polls in media, the polls themselves start having an effect on the electorate. Which one is not one of these effects?

Rigid voter effect.

Underdog Effect

Which describes the underdog effect?

Sympathetic voters may feel a desire to rally around...

Bandwagon Effect

Which describes the bandwagon effect?

Voters want to support the winning candidate and do not want to be alone in their political views.

Presidential Elections and Exit Polls

Which president conceded the election before polls had even closed on the West Coast based on exit poll data?

Jimmy Carter.

Message House in Marketing

The message house is an important tool for many types of marketing. Which of the following is not part of the message house?

Mission statement.

Electoral College

The name of the system through which the president was elected would eventually be called:

Electoral College.

Founding Fathers and Presidential Election

When the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution, what option did they choose for electing the president?

A) A compromise.

Qualitative Polling Research

What is the most common form of qualitative polling research?

Focus groups.

Focus Group Characteristics

Which is not a characteristic of focus groups:

Participants record their observations by turning a dial.

Voter Segmentation

Which type of voter segmentation targets voters according to their affiliations (such as religious organizations, labor unions, etc.)?

Behavioristic.

Voter Choice Based on Values

A voter that chooses a candidate according to epistemic value could use which of the following reasons?

"This guy has new and novel ideas. I would like to see..."

A voter that chooses a candidate according to emotional value could use which of the following reasons?

"This candidate has such a beautiful family and has worked hard..."

Political Communication

Political communication combines which two arts?

Communication and political science.

Roots of Political Communication

We can trace the roots of political communication to the success of:

Propaganda.

Calculating Media Bias

One way to calculate media bias is to:

Compare how many conservative and liberal think tanks are cited in their reporting.