Mr. Fast's Mass Media, Public Opinion, and Interest Groups

Public opinion:

• Shared attitudes and beliefs of a significant portion of a population regarding specific issues, candidates, or events

• Wrong

• Wrong

School is an important factor in shaping public opinion because:

• Technology in schools allow for a deeper comprehension of personal beliefs

• It starts the process of breaking away and forming one’s own opinions

• Social interaction with adults

Mass media affects politics most by:

• Providing information on both parties

• Reporting the results of public opinion polls

• Providing in-depth coverage on political issues

• Focusing people’s attention on certain issues

Mass media is said to be this kind of meaningful form of communication:

• Small

• Medium

• Mechanism

Public agenda can best be described as:

• Problems that the nation’s political leaders and the general public agree need government attention

• Desires of the American public to interact with the mass media to influence content

• All of the above

The media often uses spin, what is spin?

• Refusing to publish a story because it does not meet the public agenda

• Providing an interpretation of an event to persuade public opinion

Citizenship skills are mainly learned where?

• In the home

• In school

• By friends

The best definition of an interest group is:

• Groupings of large populations to fight broad topics

• Control by the American public to pass legislation without Congressional approval

• Private organization that tries to persuade public officials

Who do interest groups pressure?

• Bureaucrats who help create regulations

• Voters and the American public

• Legislators who make laws

• All of the above

Lobbyists primary focus is:

• Work within the governmental process to affect policies

• Use unfair propaganda to get a groups’s point across

• All of the above