American Government Ch.8 Vocab From Prentice Hall

Front 1

public affairs

Back 1

affairs that include politics, public issues, and the making of politics. Basically those events and issues that concern the people at large.

Front 2

public opinion

Back 2

those attitudes held by a significant number of people on matters of government and politics.

Front 3

mass media

Back 3

include those means of communication that reach large, widely dispersed audiencies simutaneously.

Front 4

peer groups

Back 4

are made up of the people with whom one regularly associates, including freinds, classmates, neighbors, and co-workers.

Front 5

opinion leaders

Back 5

any person who, for any reason, has an unusually strong influence on the views of others.

Front 6

mandate

Back 6

the instructions or commands a constituency gives its elected officials.

Front 7

intrest groups

Back 7

private organizations whose members share certain views and objectives and work to shape the making and the content of public policy.

Front 8

public opinion polls

Back 8

devices that attempt to collect info by asking people questions.

Front 9

straw vote

Back 9

polls that sought to read the public's mind by simply asking the same question of a large number of people.

Front 10

sample

Back 10

a representative slice of the total universe.

Front 11

random sample

Back 11

when a pollster interviews a certain number of randomly selected people who live in a certain number of randomly selected places.

Front 12

quota sample

Back 12

a sample deliberately constructed to reflect several of the major characteristics of a given universe.

Front 13

public agenda

Back 13

the societal problems that the nation's political leaders and the general public agree need government attention.

Front 14

sound bites

Back 14

snappy reports that can be aired in thirty or forty-five seconds or so.

Front 15

medium

Back 15

a means of communication; it transmits some kind of information.