Home

Student Resources

Chapter 7: The Mass Media and the Political Agenda

Web Explorations

Web Explorations

Please read the following groups of questions and type your answers in the space provided. Click Submit Answers for Grading to send the answer to your professor. Click the highlighted links to open in a separate window the passages or sites you’ll use to answer the questions.

This activity contains 4 questions.

	For more information on news and public opinion, go to: http://www.people-press.org. Click on "Survey Reports." Locate a poll that focuses on public reaction to media coverage of some event. Was the public's opinion of media coverage favorable or unfavorable? Find a second, similar poll. How does public opinion of media coverage differ between the two events? Can you explain the differences or similarities? What is the mission of the PEW Research Center, and how do they conduct their business? Browse the "datasets" section and report on the methods used to gather information in some of these polls. Can you identify any instances where data might be weak? Why?   To create paragraphs in your essay response, type <p> at the beginning of the paragraph, and </p> at the end.

	For more on newspapers throughout the United States, go to: www.n-net.com. Select the link for newspapers in your home state. Examine and roughly estimate the number of newspapers located in your state. What trends do you note when examining the place of publication for most of these newspapers? What does this suggest regarding newspaper coverage of events in your state? Select NH or VT. Select three newspapers that have web links. Examine these papers, read a few articles and editorials. What is the typical content on these pages? How are politics and government discussed in these papers?   To create paragraphs in your essay response, type <p> at the beginning of the paragraph, and </p> at the end.

	For more on the role of politics in the media, go to the website for The Center for Media and Public Affairs at www.cmpa.com. Click on the link for "Late Night Comedy Count." What is the purpose of these counts? Do late night comedy jokes matter? If so, why do they make a difference? Select the link for tallies of targets of political jokes for the previous month and then for the previous years. Which targets have staying power and which are quickly gone? Which current targets of jokes will soon be forgotten, do you suppose? Click on "Political Newswatch." Select the button for "Political Newswatch ’92." Examine several of the links analyzing media coverage in 1992. Go back and select the button " Political Newswatch ‘00" and conduct the same examination. What has changed and what has stayed the same in the media’s coverage of politics between 1992 and 2000? What significance do you believe these changes in media coverage mean for the voting public? Click on "Press Releases"." Examine the list of recent press releases and read several. What does this list tell you about what the Center for Media and Public Affairs believes will be picked up in the national media and newspapers? What does this tell you about the Center for Media and Public Affairs and its mission?   To create paragraphs in your essay response, type <p> at the beginning of the paragraph, and </p> at the end.

	To examine a collection of political commercials from 1952 through 2000, go to: www.ammi.org/livingroomcandidate. After entering the site, choose a video format compatible with your computer. Then choose the link marked "Highlights and Themes." Examine the seven different themes of political commercials. Select "Attack Ads." View the 1964 Johnson attack ad and the 1996 Dole ad. Compare and contrast the two ads in terms of both effectiveness and cultural relevance. Select "Real People" link. Select four different ads from different decades. What has changed and what has stayed the same in how presidential candidates portray themselves as real people? Select the link for "Desktop Candidate." Then select the link for "Candidates." Examine the various websites for the top four presidential candidates in the 2000 election. Which candidate’s website is most effective? What does a website do better than traditional media outlets in promoting candidates? What are a website’s limitations in politics?   To create paragraphs in your essay response, type <p> at the beginning of the paragraph, and </p> at the end.

Copyright © 1995 - 2010 Pearson Education . All rights reserved. Pearson Longman is an imprint of Pearson . Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Permissions