Unit 3: PART V – INTEREST GROUPS AND MASS MEDIA

  1. What is Public Opinion? ______
  2. What influences public opinion? Complete the diagram

  1. How is public opinion measured?
  2. ______
  3. Public Opinion Poll ______
  4. What do we mean by the term Mass Media? ______
  5. What are forms of mass media?
  6. Print Media ______
  7. Electronic Media ______
  8. What determines what news items are shown by the mass media? ______
  9. What is the Public Agenda? ______
  10. How does the mass media affect the public agenda? ______
  11. What other roles does mass media serve?
  12. Candidates for Office:
  13. ______
  14. ______
  15. Test public reaction: Politicians sometimes Leak (______) to reporters to gauge how the public will react.
  16. Watchdog Role ______ ______
  17. What protects the media from government censorship?
  18. Amendment ______protects the press from prior restraint - ______
  19. What limits are there on the freedom of the press?
  20. Libel ______
  21. Slander ______
  22. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ______

Name, Date, Class

Sideshow Bob runs for Mayor

C&E ideas to LOOK for:

  • Political Parties: Republican and Democrat
  • Political Issues (crime, taxes, etc.)
  • First Amendment Rights (Assembly, Speech, Petition, etc.)
  • Nomination (Caucus)
  • Role of television in election campaigns
  • Candidate debates
  • Polling Place
  • Eminent Domain

1. Who is Birch Barlow?

2. Which political party does Barlow belong to?

3. Why does Mayor Quimby name the new highway the "Matlock Expressway"?

4. Who is Sideshow Bob?

(Note: Moe, the bartender, wants to use violence to get Bob out of jail. Barney wants to use "nonviolent grassroots political action"

5. Why does Mayor Quimby pardon Sideshow Bob?

(Fact: A mayor does not have the authority to pardon only the Governor of a state and the President have that authority)

Republican Party Headquarters -- Haunted Castle

6. What type of nomination process does the Republican Party use to select Sideshow as the mayoral candidate?

How can you tell?

(Note: Bob is wrapped in the American flag -- symbolism)

Media Event

7. How do Lisa and Bart help Mayor Quimby?

Television Debatebetween Mayor Quimby and Sideshow Bob

(Note: this debate is a parody of the 1960 debate between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy)

8. Who wins the debate? How can you tell?

9. Why does Krusty the Clown vote for Sideshow Bob?

10. What is an example of eminent domain?

(Fact: Lisa gets the results of the election. This not real. An individual's vote is secret. -- secret ballot)

11. How does Lisa trick Bob into a confession?

12. Where does Sideshow Bob end up?

Final Question: Answer in paragraph form -- complete sentences

The Simpsonare a form of a political cartoon. What do you think the creators of The Simpsons are trying to say about American politics in this episode?