Chapter 8 Learning Objectives


 

Name: Date:      E-mail address: 


 
    Upon completion of Chapter 8, the Cathedral student should should be able to:
     
    1. Trace the development of the mass media and the way in which presidents have used the media in different periods of our history.

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    2. Examine how the mass media are a key part of the new period of high-tech politics.

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    3. Analyze the impact that investigative journalism has had on public cynicism and negativism about politics.

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    4. Ascertain the major sources that people rely on for their information about politics.

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    5. Determine how journalists define what is newsworthy, where they get their information, and how they present it.

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    6. Explain the role that the profit motive plays in decisions by the mass media on how to report the news.

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    7. Examine and analyze the charge that the media have a liberal bias.

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    8. Identify factors that would explain why the news is typically characterized by political neutrality.

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    9. Determine methods used by political activists to get their ideas placed high on the governmental agenda.

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    10. Clarify how the media act as key linkage institutions between the people and the policymakers.

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    11. Indicate how functions of the media may help to keep government small.

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    12. Identify functions of the media that may encourage the growth of government.

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    13. Describe how the rise of television broadcasting has encouraged individualism in the American political system.

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    14. Explain why the rise of the "information society" has not brought about a corresponding rise of an "informed society."

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    15. Summarize how the news and its presentation are important influences in shaping public opinion on political issues.
    Chief, 
      I acknowledge that I have reviewed the above Learning Objectives for Chapter 8, "Mass Media and Politics."
     

GOVT 2305  American Government and Politics
Cathedral High School, El Paso, Texas
Last updated:  June 2004