unit iii political parties, media, and interest groups

Unit IIIPolitical Parties, Media, and Interest Groups

What are high-tech media campaigns?

• -In early 1900’s, politicians tried to talk to as many people as possible

• They actually went door to door to gain voters, name recognition, and meet people

• Today TV is the most prevalent way people gain knowledge to the candidates


• Campaigns are essentially mass media campaigns

• Computers/ technology are also a huge part of campaigns

• 1996 Bob Dole told people to go to his web site t understand his policies; the server crashed


• In May 2008 Pew Research conducted a poll that concluded 6% of American adults contributed to a campaign via web site

• About 14 million people


• Another form is direct mailing• Locating potential supporters by sending

information and a request for money to people who support them.

• Candidates can pick an issue and then directly relate it a group of voters


• About $1 billion is collected in campaign finance using direct mailing

• Candidates need to use this funding in order to win a campaign


• Today, the most major item is unquestionably TV advertising

• At least half the total budget of a presidential campaign is used from TV ads

• 2012 $7 billion


• Many news organizations believe that voters are less concerned about the issues

• They prefer politics to policy


• Steps to starting a campaign:

• 1 Get a campaign manager

• 2 get a fundraiser

• 3 Hire a media and campaign consultants

• 4 Assemblée a campaign staff


5 Plan logistics

6 Get research staff and policy advisors

7 Hire a pollster

8 Get a good press secretary

9 Establish a web site

What is Campaign Finance Reform?

• Federal Elections Campaign Act (1974)• 2 goals:

• tightening reporting requirements for contributions

• Limiting expenditures


• Federal Election Campaign Act also instituted the following:

• Federal Election Commission (FEC): bipartisan; 6 members administers campaign finance and enforce their requirements


• Presidential Election Campaign Fund: $3 check off box on income tax returns

• Only about 10% of people do this

• It used to be $1 but because of inflation, it increased


• Provided partial public financing for presidential primaries• Presidential candidates who raise $5,000 in at

least 20 states can get individual funds matched up to $250 from the federal treasury

• Called matching funds


• If they agree, to matching funds, they also agree to a spending limit set forth by federal law


• Provided full public financing for major party candidates in the general election• Each major party candidate can take a fixed

amount of meny for to cover campaign costs

• In 2008 it was $85 million


• It required full disclosure

• Periodic reports on donation and how the money was spent


• Limited Contributions• McCain-Feingold Act increased the amount individuals could

contribute

• It used to be $1000

• http://www.fec.gov/ans/answers_general.shtml

http://www.fec.gov/ans/answers_general.shtml

http://www.fec.gov/ans/answers_general.shtml


• SCOTUS case:• Buckley v. Valeo (1976)

• Struck down the part of the Federal election campaign act that limited the amount of $ a person could contribute to their own campaign

• This allowed Mitt Romney to donate $44 million to his own campaign


• McCain- Feingold Act• John McCain (R-AZ) and Russell Feingold (D-

WI)


• Worked to stop the use of soft money• Money that is not subject to contribution limits

• People could donate $ to political parties without limits

• Individuals were giving hundreds of thousands of dollars and companies were giving millions


• McCain-Feingold came together in 2002 to put an end to soft money

• The bill also prohibited unions and corporations from using their general treasury funds to pay for electioneering communications


• Like water, the donors moved around the obstacles

• They created 527 groups• Do not face as much scrutiny because they are not

supporting one particular candidate

• Wealthy donors were able to continue to make contributions (see handout)

What are PACs?

• PAC= Political Action Committee• Pre 1974 corporations were not allowed to

contribute to political campaigns

• Now, by forming a PAC you can contribute up to $5,000 to campaigns

What are PACs?

• 4,611 PACs in 2008 according to the FEC

• People worry that PACs are taking over the election cycle/ politicians

What are PACs

• Most PACs are going to give $ to candidates who agree with them

• Can sometimes be attributed to votes in the legislative process as well

How Congress is organized to make policy?

• Bicameral legislature• Divided into two

• House of Representative- 4x as large as Senate

• Senate 100 memebers

How Congress is organized to make policy?

• The House Rules committee is the most powerful in the House of Representatives• Reviews all bills that come before the house

• Members are appointed by the Speaker of the House

• They can prohibit/limit amendments

How is Congress organized?

• The Senate • Filibuster

• Cloture- 60 members can stop a filibuster

Interest GroupsInterest Groups and Lobbying

What are the different types of Interest Groups?

• Major types of Interest Groups• Economic Issues

• Environmental Concerns

• Equality Issues

• Interests of all Consumers


• Economic Interests • Concerned with wages

• Prices

• Profits


• Economic Interests (contd)• Usually, economic issues are resolved/ decided

through regulations, tax advantages, subsidies, and contracts

• Business, labor, and farmers and their interests are included in economic intersts


• Economic Interests (contd)• Each of the groups ( farmers, sm. businesses,

railroads, minority businesses, etc.) want to have access to government subsidies or incentives


• Economic Interests – LABOR• More affiliated members than any other group

• AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations) is the largest interest group

• It is a group with many sub groups

• Has over 10 million members


• LABOR (contd)• Major goal: press for policies to ensure better

working conditions and higher wages


Right to work

• Forbids the requirement of workers to join a union

Union Shop• Provision found in some

collective bargaining requiring all members of a business to join a union (as a condition of employment)


• 1956- Labor union reached its peak

• Today only about 13% of people belong to a union

• The reason: low wages in other countries have diminished job market in manufacturing areas


• BUSINESS• Banks, insurance companies, multinational

corporations

• Business is typically very elite and very organized for political action


• Business• Corporate and trade PACs have shifted more

towards a Republican standpoint

• They fight regulations that would reduce their profits and seek preferential tax treatment


• ENVIRONMENTAL INTERESTS • Newest interest group category

• Can be traced to Earth Day 1970


• Environmental (contd)• Examples: Sierra Club, Audubon Society, WWF

(World Wildlife Fund)

• The groups promote pollution-control policies, animal rights, and population control


• EQUALITY INTERESTS• Groups seeking to address the 14th amendment

protections


• Equality• Oldest interest group: NAACP (Nat’l Association for the

Advancement of Colored People)

• They were involved with Brown v. Board of Education and other lesser known landmark cases

• Today, their main vehicle is the Fair Share Program- negotiate with groups to increase minority hiring and minority contracts


• Public Interest/ Consumers• Products made more safe (ie cars)

• Protections of fairness in the government

Review Questions!

• PACs• A. contribute much more money to campaigns

of challengers than incumbents

• B. contribute much more money to campaigns of incumbants than challengers

Answer B

• PACs have more of a relationship with most incumbants and they also want to have connections to a more reestablished member of congress

Review Questions!

• True or False

• As voter turnout has decreased over time, intrest group activity has also decline.

False

• Interest group activity continues to increase.

Review Questions!

• True or False

• The so-called right to work laws have positively impacted union membership in those states that adopted them.

False

• Right to work laws forbids the requirement of that workers must join a union

The Mass Media and the Political

AgendaUnit III

How does the media impact elections?

• Most parts of the a campaign are shaped by high-tech politics• Political agenda is shaped by technology

• Via mass media (TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, and Internet)


• The key to gaining control over the political agenda is to be at the top of the daily news• ie “trending now”

• A media event is a staged event that gets politicians in the news


• TV commercials help escalate people in presidential campaigns

• 60% of the campaign budget is delegated to commercials

• About 2/3 of ads are negative ads

• http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/2012

http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/2012

http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/2012


Development of Media Politics

When the constitution was written not much media existed


• Newspapers came into vogue in the mid 1800’s

• Journalists submitted their questions in writing and the president responded in writing


• President Herbert Hoover (1929-1933) is quoted as saying:• “POTUS will not stand and be questioned like a

chicken thief by men whose names he does not even know.”


• FDR (1933-45) encourages media politics • He considered the media an ally

• He held 2 press conferences a week

• He held ‘fire-side chats’ on the radio

• FDR knew the correct stories to feed to the media


• Up until the 1960’s reporters believed in respecting the privacy of presidents

• They focused on the policy issues rather than personal issues


• Once the Vietnam war and Watergate occurred, journalists became more investigative


• When the Clinton-Lewinski scandal broke 75% of the questions asked at press briefings related to the scandal


• Investigative journalism- the use of in-depth reporting to unearth scandals, scams, etc.

• Typically, it makes for tension between the media and politicians

Government Regulation of

MediaUnit III

How does the government regulate the media?

• 1934- FCC Federal Communication Commission• Regulates use of the airwaves

• 3 ways it regulates

• 1 prevent monopolies

• 2 examines stations periodically to ensure standards

• Fair treatment to airways


• First major networks: ABC, NBC, CBS• Had to cover a variety of topics

• Politics, sports, history


• Today, other channels exist

• Narrowcasting: media programming on cable or Internet that is focused on one topic and aimed at an audience


• Young people are more likely to learn from Internet and comedy TV shows about matters pertaining to politics


• One of the major changes that occurred because of the Internet is that people choose what a produce of their own intension choices


• Although American media is independent they are dependent on advertising revenues to keep their businesses going

• Public ownership of the media can serve the public interest without worry about size of their audience

• Private means getting the biggest audience possible (sometimes it is the only objective)


•Reporting the news:• As students of journalism will tell you, news is what is timely and different

• To a large extent, TV networks define news as what is entertaining to the average viewer


• Finding the News:• Beats: specific locations where the news

happens

• Trial balloons: information purposely leaked to see what the political reaction will be

• i.e. leaking a big story before it is formally reported by a news source


• Presenting the news:• Usually stories are compressed into 30 second sound

bits

• News shows like Meet the Press do entire stories, in-depth coverage

• In place of speeches, Americans now hear sound bites- about ten seconds (in 2004, average during political campaign is 7.8 seconds; in 1968, it was 43.1 seconds)

Media BiasUnit III

What is the impact of media bias?

• Bias in the news:• Most believe the media is biased in favor of one

popint of view

• ie CNN v Fox News


• Mostly of the time American believe there is a “liberal media bias”• Cover topics that are more left than right

• In 2002 about 40% of journalists surveyed believed they were more liberal while 25% right; the rest were somewhere in the middle


• Despite these findings, social science studies have found that reporting is not systematically biased toward a particular ideology or party• Most stories present a point and counterpoint

argument

• Reporters believe in journalists objectivity


• Ideally, news should mirror reality; however, the bias in media ins covering the stories that will draw the largest audience

• TV is particularly bias toward stories that will generate good pictures

• A talking head is not going to draw the same amount ogf popularity as great visuals


• News and Public Opinion• It is difficult to see how bias has an impact on

people

• Studies are difficult to construct and carry out in a meaningful manner

• It is difficult to isolate a particular variable


• Minimal effects hypothesis- stemmed from the fact that early scholars were looking for direct impacts ie if the media affected how people voted• The focus then shifted to WHAT Americans think about

• After several studies, agenda setting effects are particularly strong among politically knowledgeable citizens

unit iii political parties, media, and interest groups

Documents

campaign finance reform

presidential campaign

campaign consultants4

campaign staffwhat

campaign manager2

campaign costsin

hightech media campaigns

federal election campaign