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Hi, I'm Craig, and this is Crash Course Government and Politics, and today we're going to talk about where public opinion comes from.
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It comes from my mind brain! And yours! And Stan's! Although no one really cares to hear from Stan's mind brain...
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Just kidding Stan.
You're crying?
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Political ideologies are specific to individuals,
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but right now we're gonna try to explain the factors that shape public opinion in the aggregate,
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which is a fancy word for, like, all the people.
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[Theme Music]
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A person's opinions on politics are very much grounded in their ideology:
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whether they consider themselves liberal or conservative, but that doesn't mean they aren't susceptible to outside factors.
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I get my opinions from PewDiePie.
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Three of the main influences on our political opinions are the government, private groups, A.K.A. interest groups, and the media.
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A.K.A. my T.V. and my Internet.
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There's a lot of debate about which of these is more effective, and like anything
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a lot depends on the individual and the circumstances in which the group is trying to move public opinion.
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Probably the biggest thing that the government can do to shape public opinion is to do things.
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Whether it's raising or lowering taxes, or invading other countries,
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when the government does stuff,
we got opinions about it.
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More recently government inactivity, at least in terms of congressional lawmaking, has also had an impact on public opinion.
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It seems like Congress' approval ratings have gotten lower and lower as they pass fewer and fewer bills.
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But aside from doing, or not doing, their jobs, the government actively shapes public opinion
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by engaging in public relations maneuvers and manipulating the news cycle.
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Let's go to the Thought Bubble.
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The President is especially good at controlling the news cycle since he can go on television whenever he wants.
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The idea that the President might be at the center of the news started in the 20th Century.
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Probably with Theodore Roosevelt, who saw the office of the presidency as a "bully pulpit".
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But it really picked up steam with Franklin Roosevelt, who began the trend of presidents speaking directly to
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the American people with his "fireside chats". These were direct appeals to Americans
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to support the president's policies, and a classic example of presidential P.R.
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Since then, the government has gotten more sophisticated with its public relations,
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although perhaps not more effective.
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President Clinton was known for having a war room to coordinate his P.R. apparatus.
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But all the spin in the world didn't make Americans support his healthcare initiative.
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Presidents Bush and Obama have continued this trend, using public opinion polls to polish their images,
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even trying to figure out what sort of vacations they should take.
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But as with Clinton, there's not a ton of evidence that their P.R. activities worked.
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This probably has something to do with the changing media landscape,
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which we will discuss in greater future episodes.
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One innovation that has not worked all that well are policy commercials known as video news releases.
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President Bush in particular tried to sway public opinion by paying for P.R. pieces that
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looked and sounded like news stories which made his policies sound good.
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This was especially true of his education policies.
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I'll leave it to you to decide whether you think "No Child Left Behind" was a success,
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but the point is that you need to be very careful when watching news stories about actual polices these days.
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There's also a historical explanation for why government efforts to create positive public opinion are less successful than we might think.
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In the 1960's and 1970's, the Vietnam War and then the Watergate Scandal put a massive dent in the people's
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trust in the government, which is understandable since government officials were lying about the war
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and using the C.I.A. to spy on Americans.
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I bet if you ask your parents, or maybe your grandparents, you'll hear a story about how much better
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the government was back in the '50s and early '60s, but that might be a reflection of the
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generally robust economy, and a Cold War consensus that criticizing the government
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was unpatriotic, you communist sympathizer!
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And if you're African-American the 1950's and early 1960's probably don't look so rosy either.
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Thanks, Thought Bubble. This brings us to another point about public opinion generally:
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It's highly reactive to current events, especially the economy,
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or eagles being in your vicinity and you wanting to punch them.
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I don't think it's a coincidence that presidential and congressional approval ratings have been pretty low
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during the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
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I mean, Americans love to complain, but the six years following 2008 have seemed pretty awful.
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Or maybe it has a lot to do with the other two primary influences on public opinion.
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Private groups, especially organized interest groups, but also less-formally-political organizations like
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churches, can have a significant effect on the way the public views government and its polices.
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Any group with a particular interest in legislation can mount an advertising campaign
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for or against a law, provided that they have the money to do so.
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Sometimes these groups exist already, like the National Rifle Association,
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which works hard to ensure that stringent regulations on firearms don't get passed.
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Other times an interest group will grow up around a specific issue,
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as often happens in states like California that feature ballot initiatives.
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The growth of the Internet as a source of news, information, and advertising has
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lowered the cost of public relations and makes it easier for specific interest groups to get their messages out.
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Like the time I Tumbled about how the dress was totally black and blue!
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Often the group that's better at swaying public opinion has more money.
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A great example of how an interest group with a lot of money and a single issue
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can shape public opinion was the "Harry and Louise" ad campaign sponsored by
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the Health Insurance Association of America. Or, hiyaah!
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Over the course of a year in 1993 and 1994 the group sponsored 14 television ads
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featuring a fictitious couple, Harry and Louise, who fretted over the potentially calamitous consequences
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of President Clinton's health care proposals.
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The ads cost between 14 and 20 million dollars, and are widely credited with helping move
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public opinion against the Clinton health policy.
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Some groups don't have as much money.
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Public interest research groups often use volunteers or very low paid interns to go door to door
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or stand in the street handing out information about issues that concern them, such as the environment.
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Both liberal and conservative groups sponsor "think tanks" that produce research intended to change people's minds.
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On the right are groups like the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute.
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On the left you might have heard of the Brookings Institute.
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All the information that's put out by various think tanks and interest groups
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probably wouldn't have as big an impact if not for the third factor shaping public opinion: the media.
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Of the three, the media tends to be the most powerful force in shaping public opinion
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because it's everywhere, and it's easy to access, and people look all nice
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with their makeup and the flashy graphics make them seem real smart.
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For most of us the news media is the lowest cost way to get our information that shapes our opinion.
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The main way that the media shapes public opinion is by choosing what stories to cover and not cover.
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It's pretty hard to have an opinion on a topic if you know nothing about it.
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Although many would say it's getting easier and easier, at least on Twitter.
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One way the media shapes what we know is through what is called "priming".
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That's when you put a coat of primer on the house before you paint it. The paint sticks real good.
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No. This is when the media prepares the public to take a particular view of an issue,
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often through the amount of coverage it gives.
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For example, if media outlets chose to focus on crime, they do a crime-prime,
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then crime will become a greater concern to the public, and this might translate into more political action.
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Closely related to priming is "framing", which is the way the media outlets choose to interpret an event for us.
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The launch of Obamacare is a good example.
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Some media outlets focused on the numbers of people who signed up for healthcare who
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didn't previously have it, and some focused on the failure of the initial launch of healthcare.gov.
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The point is the stories the media decides to tell about an issue inevitably change the way
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the public thinks about that issue.
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So that's a brief introduction to the way that government, private groups, and the media
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can attempt to shape public opinion, and I know a lot of this seems like common sense,
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but I think it's good to look closely at our opinions and to question where they come from.
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This is especially true when it comes to the media, which is changing so fast
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the political scientists are struggling to figure out what its effects on our political thinking might be.
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This is good news for political scientists because it promises future employment,
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but difficult for those of us trying to create videos that explain how the world of politics works.
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Much of what I've told you here will probably change over the next few years,
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but your ability to think about it shouldn't, as well as your ability to click on the video and play it.
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And watch it again. Even though it's two years old. Thanks for watching! See you next time!
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Crash Course Government and Politics is produced in association with PBS Digital Studios.
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Support for Crash Course US Government comes from Voqal. Voqal supports nonprofits that use technology
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and media to advance social equity. Learn more about their mission and initiatives at voqal.org.
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Crash Course is made with the help of all these nice public opinion-havers. Thanks for watching.
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