Mmc 3614 Media And Politics Assessment Answers

Answer

“Indeed every opinion is a marriage of information and predisposition”. This is one of arguments made by Zaller in his book, “The Nature and Origin of Mass Opinion”. Undoubtedly the elite discourse has a very crucial role to play in determining the information which voters have regarding potential election candidates (Zaller, 1992). You like or not quite a large number of people who live in large societies always lack information on various issues that are affecting them in the larger world. As a result of this, people will always rely on information from what can be called unseen about what is happening or  rather issues that are affecting them in one way or the other. I entirely agree with Zaller that our living here on earth rotates in a small part of the earth surface meaning that our daily moves as well as interaction are mostly in a small circle and thus in such case it becomes hard for an individual to have so many acquaintances (Zaller, 1992). Zaller says that most of the information people receive over the news is in most cases untrue and stereotypic aiming at winning people opinions about something. It is highly selective ignoring aspects that may form contrary opinion.

Role of Political Knowledge on reception of information by Voters

Zaller further argues that political information plays a very crucial role in influencing voters’ decision making (Silbey, 1994). Voters will always make decisions of voting depending on the information they already have at hand. The political knowledge does not only affect individuals but as also at contextual level. This implies that the greatness of campaigns carried out will definitely play an essential role in determining the voters’ behavior at the time of voting. Increase in the intensity of the campaigns done leads to a corresponding increase in the information available to citizens and therefore gives voters a ground to make decision on voting. However, there exists a difference in that those people with high heights of political information will always make decisions from their own attitudes rather that basing them on elite cues. On contrast, people with less political knowledge will base their judgments on the elite discourse.

Meaning of predisposition and its impact on individual acceptance of message from elite discourse

By predisposition, Zaller means the tendency of an individual to be able to accept certain information from elite discourse. He farther says that predisposition is essential in determining whether an individual while accept certain information or not. For instance, most people have a tendency of disagreeing with information that doesn’t go as per their political predispositions and thus convincing them to accept can prove to be difficult (Stanley, 1988).

Role of Partisanship in Clinton Approval ratings

Apart from acknowledging Clinton skyrocketing ratings to his good relation with the public, his good relationship with some of his party members such as Obama gave him an upper hand in improving his ratings (Morris, 1997). Moreover, despite the congress ratings went down after the Monica Lewinsky scandal, the percentage was higher than those who thought that Clinton should leave the office thus partisanship was essential in keeping the ratings high as well as keeping his office.

Monica Lewinsky Case

Monica case dropped Clinton’s public rating as after a referendum only 35% where in support of him. Surprising, he reversed the trend as his job rating of 55% outweigh his weaknesses and thus many were for Clinton to stay in the office despite of the scandal.

Works Cited

Zaller, John R. The nature and origins of mass opinion. Cambridge university press, 1992.

Silbey, Joel H. "The rise and fall of American political parties 1790-1993." The parties respond: Changes in American parties and campaigns (1994): 3-18.

Stanley, Harold Watkins, and Richard G. Niemi. Vital statistics on American politics. Cq Press, 1988.

Morris, Dick. Behind the Oval Office: Winning the presidency in the nineties. Random House Incorporated, 1997.