HIS STUDY focuses on the differential structuring by three television networks of the same public event, part of the 1952 Democratic nominating convention. It is contended that the differential interpretations given the episodes by three groups of viewers reflect and were determined by an unwitting bias on the part of the telecasters which, in turn, can be attributed, in part, to differences in the telecasters' judgments of their audience.The particular period subject to intensive analysis began at 6:56 P.M. July 24 and lasted until 1:07 the next morning. The evening was one of the more exciting and complicated ones in the Democratic meeting. The analysis begins at the point during the roll call on nominations for the Presidency when Louisiana, one of the states refusing to sign the nowfamous loyalty pledge, yielded to its co-rebel Virginia for a parliamentary inquiry concerning the status of non-signers in the convention. A ruling by the chair that they might not participate was reversed after a drawnout roll call characterized by considerable vote-switching by leading delegations. All three non-conforming states were seated during the.session but not until after Senator Douglas of Illinois had started a dramatic move for adjournment, and the verbal fire had been interrupted by an honest-to-goodness fire on the floor of the convention itself. Despite the defeat of this move to adjourn, another adjournment motion was suddenly recognized and gaveled through just a little later.
There are three ways in which polls can influence the public opinion they purport merely to measure. Just being interviewed tends to arouse interest and to encourage some respondents to inform themselves and to clarify their views on the subject. It may even increase electoral participation. Second, there is little evidence that knowledge of where the majority stands has anything like the much feared bandwagon effect. Although many people are aware of poll findings, they react to these in more diverse ways, including tactical voting, than the bandwagon hypothesis implies. These reactions may in turn produce a third effect. Feeling that there is little support for one's viewpoint can discourage and even intimidate the advocates of a minority viewpoint, keeping that issue from being raised. Here polls can either act as a corrective or put a damper on discussion, making the minority view appear even less popular than it actually is.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.