numbers to influence public opinion. Stone discusses how “Numbers are used to tell stories… [and] the power to measure is the power to control. Measures have a lot of discretion in their choice of what and how to measure.” This can become very dangerous because when politicians present the public with data, they could present as much or as little data as they see fit and then they utilize that selective data to tell stories to sway public opinion. One of the most infamous examples is President Nixon’s “War on Drugs” which was a propaganda led effort to stir public opinion by utilizing fear in the media. Now a portion of the research done during this time by the government did assist with finding the effects of hard drugs, but it also linked
For instance, Menand writes, “The fraction of the electorates that responds to substantive political argument is hugely outweighed by the fraction that responds to slogans, misinformation...random personal association.” Mass voters mostly pursue the wrong or irrelevant information that are irrelevant to the election; thus lead them to vote for the candidates which they do not really want. Their choices mostly lack rationalities. Many voters who are slightly informative think that they are participating in a certain issue and considering the value of the candidates; yet most of them do not have adequate information and knowledge in understanding the meaning of political terms. Voters lack judgment on their government and candidates, their minds are easily being brainwashed by a small amount of people who has informative approaches in participating governmental issue, and affect their
The Tuskegee Experiment is one of the unethical Health Researches done in the United States. The way the research was conducted was against people 's civil rights. Totally secretive and without any objectives, procedures or guidance from any government agency. During the time that the project was launched there were very few laws that protected the public from medical malpractice or from plainly negligence. Also the Civil Rights act did not pass until the 1960 's.
Voting is one of the citizens’ rights living in a country. In the past, not everyone can vote. Voting used to be for only white American men. However, our ancestors fought for that rights. Eventually, any American who are older than eighteen can vote, despite their race or gender. In addition, voter turnout is used to keep track of the voting. It is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election. Unfortunately, the voter turnout has been decreasing over time, and it means that there are less and fewer people who actually show up and vote. This essay will discuss the voter turnout in Harris County, Texas.
Among the many ways Americans can participate in politics, voting is considered one of the most common and important ways for Americans to get involved. The outcome of any election, especially at the national level, determines who will be making and enforcing the laws that all Americans must abide by. With this in mind one might assume that all Americans are active voters, but studies show the voter turnout is actually astonishingly low. With this unsettling trend it is important to know what statistics say about voter turnout as was as the four major factors that influence participation: Socioeconomic status, education, political environment, and state electoral laws, in order to help boost turnout in future elections.
Perhaps the greatest threat that FPTP poses to democracy is the appalling discrepancy between election results and the actual percentage of votes cast for each political party. In the FPTP syste...
...s are driving voters' decisions. This received serious criticism because polling errors created false impressions about who's ahead or who's behind in the campaign, and that may affect voters' thinking. It was clear that some news media were relying on the exit polls for sources of performance as early reports were conveying that Kerry was doing well.
In his columns, Kristof appeals to his audience’s logic through quantitative data. For example, in a column on human trafficking Kristof says, “A U.N. agency estimates that more than 12 million people are engaged in forced labor, including sexual servitude.” (“Fighting Back”). Kristof perplexes his audience with this statistic because the large number of people forced into labor indistinguishable from slavery. This statistic illustrates the immensity of the problem worldwide, putting the concern into perspective for Kristof’s audience. He also utilizes quantitative data when he says, “By my calculations, at least 10 times as many girls are now trafficked into brothels annually as African slaves were transported to the New World in the peak years of transatlantic slave trade.” (“The Face of Modern Slavery”). Since Kristof includes his own research here, it establishes his credibility as he has thoroughly researched this topic. He makes a historical reference as well when he compares this new form of slavery to the older form. Including that in his column convinces his audience of the enormity of the human trafficking...
The first and most effective discouragement to voting is exit polls that predict the outcome of an election or in modern terms "electronic forecasting." Exit polling on or before Election Day has become the predominant method used by mass media in American politics for predicting outcomes of elections according to George Bishop and Bonnie Fisher of Public Opinion Quarterly (Page 568). In most recent elections exit polling has grown into an even more complex mass survey medium with institutions such as Voter Research and Surveys (VRS) of New York who provide polling results for massive television netwo...
The United States is an inspiration of liberty and hope for nations around the world. It is a nation with citizens who have the unalienable rights of, “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness,” and a model for how democratic nations should be ordered and maneuvered due to its intrinsic values that are held. Democracy is a system of government where the citizens are responsible for shaping their nation to represent who they are and what they stand for. The people have the ultimate power in the nation. However, as no pure direct democracy exists in any nation, an indirect democracy arises, where people vote to elect representatives, who then in turn make the greater part of decisions for the nation.
Roll call votes, number of bills signed and the numbers of presidential vetoes present an interesting method of measuring success. They are quantitative in nature and present a statistical relationship . As Dr. Whitlock put it: “There is a reason Americans prefer football over soccer – we love score. “ Although focus on success is frequent and relatively easy to measure, some scholars including (Collier 1959) have argued that it fails to capture the full picture surrounding the passage of a piece of legislation. For example, as (Collier 1959) remarked, the passage of a piece of legislation signed by the president may be different than the original bill introduced in the Congress. Yet, the president can still claim political victory after the bill passes. In addition, during divided government, when party control is divided between the branches, success in terms of outcomes measures may fail to capture the full picture of which player was really preventing the objective of the
Starting with methods, such as, pool taxes and literacy tests, cunningly denying individuals their right to vote or convey their political voice continues in America today. Saito in the article “The Political Significance of Race” describes the effects that redistricting and gerrymandering can have on a community, by using the decennial census as a “unique opportunity to examine the relation between race and politics because the 1965 Voting Rights Act requires the recognition and protection of the political rights of ethnic and racial minorities” (120). Redistricting is the redrawing of districts, block by block supposedly to ensure each district has about the same number of people, and to guarantee that each voter has an equal political say. Redistricting can determine which political party is in power in each district by deliberately ensuring the district is drawn to include the people who support a specific party. This is called gerrymandering, the manipulation of district lines to protect or change political power. This can be used as a strategy to dilute the political voice of minority groups by conveniently drawing the lines to minimize their
Digrazia, J, Mckelvey, K, Bollen, J, Rojas, F & Martinez, LM . (2013). More Tweets, More Votes: Social Media as a Quantitative Indicator of Political Behavior. PLoS ONE, 8 (11), [1-5].
This essay concerns social influence in general. Aspects of social influence as such as majority influence and minority influence will be discussed in terms of their underlying psychological processes and how they differ. Majority influence or conformity refers to the desire to belong or to fit in within a particular group which involves adopting certain attributes, behaviour and attitudes of a particular group. As a result individuals consequently experience group pressure (in Baron, Branscombe & Byrne 2008). Minority influence on the other hand, refers to the influence that the minority exert over the majority in that the majority come to accept the beliefs and behaviours of a minority (in Baron et al. 2008).
Public Opinion is a collection of different individual’s attitudes about a specific issue. The public opinion is important to see what and how these individuals formed their attitude and concerns as towards certain issues. As in every specific issue, there is a specific of the attitudes of the public Political Knowledge refers to what we know about the government and politics as an individual. Political Preposition defines it a person who lacks in political information and will have a difficult time in understanding the aspects of and relating to the issue. In the reading Influencing Public Opinion, “The Nature of Origins of Mass Opinion (1992), Political Scientist John Zaller observed that only a few of us easily forms attitudes when questioned by an interviewer. Most individuals find that task extremely difficult because they lack political knowledge or information.” (Hernandez 2015c, 1) I found this experiment to be true because with the lack of knowledge or information you will find it extremely difficult in answering just a simple question about our government and politics. If we are informed about government and politics, we would see this question easy to relate
Politics is the means for attaining valued things. Although, valued things are different in every society, the means of securing those things has never changed. The competition for power, authority and influence will always be the backbone of politics. Applying power, authority and influence to the valued things that support the public good, will produce the quality of life a society desires. In the present day, citizens in the United States demand certain valued things such as welfare, education, safe streets and healthcare. Through politics, citizens can apply their power in many different ways to get the things they want. Power is the ability to get someone to do something they may or may not want to do. Through the use of or the application of coercion, persuasion, manipulation and negotiation, power is used to influence the system.