1. Forming Public Opinion

2. Public Opinion
Ideas and attitudes most people hold about an issue or person

3. Role of Public Opinion Shapes decisions of every president
Needs support of people and Congress
Understanding public opinion helps make effective, timely decisions

4. Diversity
Different groups hold different opinions
Enough people must hold a particular opinion to make government listen

5. Sources of Public Opinion
Personal Background
Personal experience
Age, gender, income, race, religion, job, where you live
Mass Media
Ways of communicating broadly to the masses
Public Officials
People elected into office
People indicate trust in person
Interest Groups
People who share views on an issue
Work to persuade others to their opinion

6. Features of Public Opinion
Direction-positive or negative opinion
Intensity-strength of opinion
Stability-how firm someone sticks to their views

7. Measuring Public Opinion
Public Opinion Polls
A survey of individuals
Every major elected official monitors

8. What Do Pollsters Do?
Pollster-a person whose job is to conduct polls regularly
Measures popularity
Random samples-wide variety of people
Must be careful how they form questions
Push polls
Questions worded in a way to influence a person’s response

9. Support for polls Problems with polls
Allows people to keep in touch with changing views
Problems with polls
Polls make public officials more concerned about pleasing rather than doing the job
Affect elections: treat like a horse race: ignore issues, focus on win v. loss
Discourages voting