Political Information Processing Summary

2291 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Media impact on politics

Over the past year, the arguing in politics has elicited a range of emotions from voters angered on both sides of the political aisle. Many are voters more moved either by habit or by momentary passion than by rational judgment. Politics seem to be more of a tv reality show currently boasting scandals, and sensational events and the media are using this emotion to frame issues to evoke the desired emotional response. Most of these diagnoses according to Braden and Marcus are directed at reducing the frequency and intensity of emotional appeals in the domain of politics (p. 175). Emotion is an unavoidable and undeniable part of human nature. Arguments over the last three decades are the exclusion of emotion from final judgments …show more content…

What do they identify as problematic with many of the existing measures of political liberalism and conservatism? What recent advances have changed our understanding of political information processing? What limitations currently exist in terms of how we understand the values and beliefs of citizens?
Taber and Young’s chapter on “Political Information Processing,” examines the individual-level psychological processes as they apply to particular political opinions. They delineate the cognitive psychology of opinion formation and how it distinguishes social-process models of ideological thinking and more traditional class-based or self-interest models (p. 525). Psychological investigation of ideology and its basic integrity depends upon having an appropriate measurement of political …show more content…

Information processing and the rate at which users receive information impacts and how it affects their processing behavior happens in everyday lives. We are surrounded and bombarded with social media, contagions, and are a product of the information obtained within our environment bubble. We continually prioritize information from multiple sources, quickly the process information. An individual’s susceptibility to impacts of any given information critically depends on the rate and emotion not the validity of the data. Humans have limited cognitive processing capacities, and consequently, information will affect the quality of decision making. How we as political scientists evaluate and use this information now and in the future, could significantly increase awareness both negatively and

Show More
Related

  • Ames And Hedges

    1032 Words  | 3 Pages

    Melissa Ames and Chris Hedges address the similar theme of political apathy in America, but deviate starkly in their respective audiences, tones, subjects, and methods of delivery. Because the authors possess differing viewpoints about the future of the country, are shaped by distinctive backgrounds and experiences, and have explored various unique concepts, one can detect a great degree of dissimilarity between the works in question. Even so, a thoughtful reader can also grasp quite a few similarities between their articles, “American Psychosis” and “Engaging ‘Apolitical’ Adolescents.”

    Read More

  • I Am Centerville, Neither Republican nor Democrat

    1152 Words  | 3 Pages

    When it comes to my political beliefs, I am indecisive between being a Republican or a Democrat. The reason for this, is because I never really showed enough interest into learning more about politics. As for my politically ideology, I feel that I am more liberal than I am conservative. In theory, ideology is defined in two ways, “(1) Organized set of political attitudes based on underlying principles”, and “(2) a cohesive set of beliefs that form a general philosophy about the role of government” (McAtee). An Individual’s political ideology can be formed from public opinions and agents of socializations (McAtee). According to the quiz I took on “Politopia.com”, the results showed that I was “Centerville”, which means that I am in between of being a Democrat or a Republican, or that I support both sides and yet oppose to both sides.

    Read More

  • An Analysis of the Rhetorical Elements of Political Campaign Advertisements

    1054 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is very common in the United States’ political sphere to rely heavily on T.V. commercials during election season; this is after all the most effective way to spread a message to millions of voters in order to gain their support. The presidential election of 2008 was not the exception; candidates and interest groups spent $2.6 billion on advertising that year, from which $2 billion was used exclusively for broadcast television (Seelye 2008). Although the effectiveness of these advertisements is relatively small compared to the money spent on them (Liasson 2012), it is important for American voters to think critically about the information and arguments presented by these ads. An analysis of the rhetoric in four of the political campaign commercials of the 2008 presidential election reveals the different informal fallacies utilized to gain support for one of the candidates or misguide the public about the opposing candidate. Presidential candidate Barack Obama, who belongs to the Democratic Party, broadcast the first commercial we will analyze, the title is “Seven” referring to the seven houses his opponent John McCain owns; Barack Obama tries to engage pathos which refers to the audience of the message (Ramage et Al. 2012) utilizing a form of fallacy known as “appeal to pity”, this fallacy tries to “appeal to the audience’s sympathetic feelings in order to support a claim that should be decided on more relevant or objective grounds” (Ramage et al.

    Read More

  • Political Ideology: Nolan Test

    983 Words  | 2 Pages

    Millions of citizens around the United States, at some point in their lifetime, obtain a political ideology. Typically, their political values are influenced by their parents. Political scientists have identified that around age eleven, children begin to develop political opinion. According to Wilson’s, American Government: Institutions and Policies, 91% of a high school senior class indentified with the same party as their parents (American Government 158). I can attest to this since I in fact have the same party association as my parents. Ever since I was young, I categorized myself as a Democrat due to the fact that my elders were. However, as I have matured I am able to recognize the beliefs and ideologies that followers of certain parties possess. Since I have been more exposed to the political arena I am able analyze the issues more critically and hence I continuously question whether I should classify myself as a Democrat or Republican.

    Read More

  • Article Analysis: Emotions and Choices by Robert C. Solomon

    1015 Words  | 3 Pages

    This paper will examine Robert C. Solomon's Emotions and Choices article, to best identify what anger is, and to what extent a rational human being is responsible for their anger. Firstly, Solomon's argument must be described. A quick summation of Solomon's argument can be found in the following four points: Emotions are judgements, emotions are chosen, emotions serve a purpose, and emotions are rational.1 To quote Solomon, he explains that “Emotions are not occurrences, and do not happen to us. They ... may be chosen like an action.”2

    Read More

  • Political Polarization in the United State

    1401 Words  | 3 Pages

    John Chambers of the University of Florida measures the difference between "actual" and "perceived" polarizat...

    Read More

  • Horse Race Journalism Essay

    1426 Words  | 3 Pages

    In theory, political campaigns are the most important culmination of the democratic debate in American politics. In practice, however, the media shrouds society’s ability to engage in a democratic debate with unenlightening campaign coverage. Because of this, it is difficult—if not impossible—to have educated political discourse in which the whole, factual truth is on display. After years of only seeing the drama of presidential campaigns, the American public has become a misinformed people.

    Read More

  • Political Parties: Party Identification

    1767 Words  | 4 Pages

    Party identification is the political party that an individual categorizes them self with. Political parties came about as a way to organize citizens with similar beliefs and attitudes. These parties then attempt to influence the government by electing members into office. Today there are two main parties people can identify: Republican and Democrat. There is also a third choice, being an Independent, but for the purpose of this paper this group will not be recognized as a political party. These reasons will be discussed later. There are many different theories as to why people do or do not identify with a political party, including social psychology, issue related, and psychological attachments. I believe the social psychology theory has the right idea. Sociology is about studying human society and how it develops and functions. So, it makes sense that social factors would have a big impact on whether we identify with a political party or not.

    Read More

  • Political Ethnography Analysis

    1188 Words  | 3 Pages

    To understand American society fully, one must understand America’s political makeup. In order to do that, it is necessary to understand a person’s political opinions and how they came about. This is done by examining how political ideology and political socialization influence society and individuals within that society. Political ideology is the set of beliefs that shape the way someone views government action; it is the way that they think the government should act and react to certain situations. In the United States, the two main political ideologies are liberal and conservative. How American’s teach the tenets and goals of the political system is known as political socialization. This is typically done through parents, peers, school,

    Read More

  • Synthesis Essay

    884 Words  | 2 Pages

    Individuals may believe this new exposure of political debates and facts about the candidates would help the public make an educated decision of their president. However, all of that television has done is turn the presidential debates into a popularity contest. Elections were based on image, charm and how the networks wish to have the candidates perceived. Televisions’ contribution to political debates only emphasized personality, visual image and emotion rather than ideas, issues and reason.

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis Of Henrik Ibsen's The Story Of An Hour

    868 Words  | 2 Pages

    It has long been thought that reason was what moral judgment was based off of. As time changed, emotions have become influential, causally sufficient, and necessary when it comes to forming moral judgments. The authors find that both are present when forming moral judgments (Polzler). This source is credible as it was found in an academic peer-reviewed journal, and on a college sponsored database.

    Read More

  • Political Socialization

    991 Words  | 2 Pages

    Political socialization begins early on in life and is an ongoing process affecting individuals throughout. It is how people eventually identify personal beliefs and expectations in American politics. These political views can include our level of patriotism, faith in the democratic system, standards by which we hold governing bodies, and opinions regarding public policies. From the playground to the classroom, the office to the dinner table, much of our lives affect our political opinions. The most easily identified agents of this are family, schooling, peers, mass media, political parties and religious influences. Furthermore, these means indoctrinate us in the political society through four basic methods: latent, manifest, affective, and instrumental socialization.

    Read More

  • Political Psychology Essay

    1506 Words  | 4 Pages

    As progressively more accepted interdisciplinary and multi-method approach, which has now become a need of time, for interpreting in detail political phenomena at individual-level, the rapidly growing field of political psychology has made significant strides in illuminating the processes that are hidden behind the political affiliations, attitudes, feelings, decision making, behavior and above all in the interaction among the individual and group. For this reason, it is in a exceptional position to perk up the explanatory power of research in both psychology and political science that surrounds the national and international relations that either directly or indirectly deals with the individual psychology.

    Read More

  • The Impact of Social Media on Language

    1225 Words  | 3 Pages

    This is because of a variety of reasons.... ... middle of paper ... ... However, the author acknowledges that social media has also increased the need for fast information [22].

    Read More

  • Is Social Media Making Me Miserable?

    934 Words  | 2 Pages

    Social media is a quick and easy way to spread news and information across the world. However, the common saying, “you can’t believe everything you see on the internet,” is true. Social media allows the spread of unreliable and false information. A study done by the American Press Institute found, “64% of people who use Twitter for news say that they have encountered something they "later discovered wasn't true," and 16% of Twitter news users say that "they had retweeted or posted a tweet they later discovered to be false” (API). This can have various effects as people are falsely educated which can lead to some bad or unnecessary decisions.

    Read More

More about Political Information Processing Summary

Open Document