POL1003: Federal Government Flashcards

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the public opinion poll.
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The most common method used to determine public opinion is:
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Wealth
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Political scientist Samuel Huntington has identified four politically relevant values that are widely accepted by a great consensus in our political culture and serve as a basis for defining political beliefs. Which is NOT one of the four values?
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Preferring that government take a more assertive role in the redistribution of economic resources and individual freedoms.
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Which of the following is most closely aligned with contemporary liberal ideology?
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Reinforcing traditional moral values on social issues but preferring limited government intervention in economic matters.
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Which of the following is most closely aligned with contemporary conservative ideology?
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ordinary citizens are ill-informed about political issues, ill-equipped to understand politics, and quite fickle in how they stand on issues.
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Political scientist Philip Converse conducted a famous study of public opinion in which he found, through scientific surveys, that:
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When public opinion shifts, a corresponding shift in public policy is likely to follow.
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Page and Shapiro, in their 1992 study, investigated the link between public opinion and public policy. What was their finding?
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agents of political socialization.
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Often there are many factors and institutions that shape what and how a person learns about politics, particularly from a young age. These factors and institutions are known as:
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parents.
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Typically, the most consistent influence on the development of an individual's political values and beliefs is provided by:
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scientific sampling
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When each possible respondent in a survey's target population has an equal and known chance of being selected for participation, this is called:
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sampling error.
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The amount of error in a poll that results from interviewing a group of people rather than the whole population under study is referred to as:
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The Literary Digest
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Which publication famously failed to accurately predict the outcome of the 1936 election, despite having an enormous number of (self-selected) survey respondents?
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The people do not directly rule; instead, they exercise power indirectly by electing government officials to vote and act on their behalf.
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What is the primary characteristic of a representative democracy?
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suffrage.
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The right to vote is also known as:
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Aiding enemies of the United States who seek to overthrow its government militarily.
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Beyond voting, citizens participate in the political process in many other ways. Which of the following would NOT be included in a list of common and legitimate methods of citizen participation?
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Eighteen-to-twenty year olds
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Which of the following groups was last to gain universal suffrage in the United States?
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The right of any citizen to vote regardless of race or previous condition of servitude.
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The Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1870, granted what right?
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1920.
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The Nineteenth Amendment, granting women the right to vote, was ratified in:
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voter turnout.
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This term describes the percentage of eligible voters who vote in a given election:
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5 percent.
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Approximately what percentage of Americans report that they have contributed money to a political campaign?
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There has been no noticeable increase in voter turnout.
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In recent years the trend has been to make voter registration easier and more accessible. Voter registrations have increased nationwide. What has been the subsequent result in voter turnout?
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Elderly people
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Which of the following demographic groups is most likely to consistently vote in elections?
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The Constitution makes no mention of political parties.
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Which of the following demographic groups is most likely to consistently vote in elections?
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Political parties were distrusted and rejected as tools of the politically ambitious that tended to promote corruption and bias.
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Which of the following best describes how the Founders who drafted the U.S. Constitution felt about political parties?
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Destabilizing the government when it is controlled by an opposing party.
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Which of the following is NOT a critical and legitimate function of an American political party?
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assuming greater powers than those granted to the federal government by the Constitution.
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Thomas Jefferson helped to create the Democratic-Republican Party in the 1790s. He criticized then-President George Washington as:
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Establish the new Democratic Party and then win the 1828 presidential election.
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In 1824 Andrew Jackson won the popular vote for president but did not receive enough electoral votes to win outright. The vote was constitutionally thrown to the U.S. House of Representatives, which chose John Quincy Adams for the presidency. This outcome was a catalyst for Jackson to do what?
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realigning, or critical, election.
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An election that results in a clear shifting of voter preferences from one party to another, or that clearly solidifies a party's unity, is referred to as a:
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party identification.
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Many voters have a psychological attachment to a political party that heavily influences how they vote and form political opinions. This attachment is commonly called:
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winner-takes-all.
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In the United States a candidate for Congress can win his or her seat with a plurality of the vote, even if s/he fails to win a majority of the votes. This system is referred to as:
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direct primaries.
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Until the early twentieth century, party leaders had exclusive control over the nomination of presidential candidates. Subsequent reforms allowed rank-and-file party members to express their preference for the nomination through what are called:
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1854.
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The Democratic Party is the oldest political party in the world. The Republican Party, on the other hand, was not established until:
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Working class people, such as members of labor unions
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Among the groups listed below, which is most closely associated with supporting the Democratic Party?
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politicians
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A series of studies by Solomon Asch in the 1940s demonstrated that people's views of ___________ varied depending upon whether their peers described this group positively or negatively.
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college students
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To test the influence of party identification on welfare policy preferences, Cohen conducted a series of experiments in which he presented newspaper articles and questionnaires to ___________.
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political ideology
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Participants began Study 1 by answering a series of questions about themselves. One question asked participants to rate themselves on a scale from 1 (very much liberal) to 9 (very much conservative). The purpose of this question was to measure participants' _________
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$250 per month in benefits plus $50 per child
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Which of the following is not part of the "generous" welfare policy described to participants in Study 1?
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welfare policy preferences (support v. oppose)
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The dependent variable in Cohen's research, i.e. the outcome being predicted, is:
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"The specific details of the proposal." OR "[Their] own personal philosophy of the role of government in social issues."
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According to the experimental participants in Studies 1 & 2, which of the following had the greatest influence on their preference for a generous versus stringent welfare policy?
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"What the typical Democrat or Republican believes."
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According to the experimental participants in Study 1, which of the following had the least influence on their preference for a generous versus stringent welfare policy?
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"What the typical Democrat or Republican believes."
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According to the experimental participants in Study 2, which of the following had the least influence on their preference for a generous versus stringent welfare policy?
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The position taken by other members of a participant's political party
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Based upon the evidence from this article, which factor really did have the most influence on participants' welfare policy preferences?
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personal knowledge
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In addition to replicating the findings from Study 1, Study 2 also tested the effect of ____________ on welfare policy preferences.
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Democrats would have supported going to war and Republicans would have opposed it.
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Imagine Barack Obama had been president in 2003, and he - rather than George W. Bush - had proposed going to war in Iraq. Based upon the evidence from this article, how would most members of the two major parties have responded?
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presidential primary
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A statewide election in which voters choose among various candidates for the party's presidential nomination is called a:
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Possible presidential candidates begin to test the waters, raise money, attract media attention, and try to sway support of influential party members.
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What takes place during the pre-nomination phase of a presidential campaign?
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Primaries and caucuses are held throughout the United States to elect delegates for the national party convention, who will then vote to nominate a party's presidential candidate.
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Normally, the period from January through June of the year of a presidential election is referred to as the nomination campaign. What occurs during this period?
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To promote the party's presidential candidate and build momentum among voters for the upcoming election.
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What is the primary purpose of the national party conventions that are held in the summer prior to the presidential elections?
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Ohio has 16 seats in the House of Representatives and 2 seats in the Senate.
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The state of Ohio currently has 18 votes in the Electoral College. It has this number of votes because:
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Nothing
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Becoming an early front-runner for a party's nomination during the pre-nomination phase of the campaign guarantees what?
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The state cannot be considered safely Democrat or Republican, and so either party has a reasonable chance of winning its votes in the presidential election.
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What is meant by the term "battleground state"?
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open primary
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When voters can participate in a party primary regardless of whether they are registered members of that party, this is called a(n):
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political action committees
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Arms of special interest groups that raise and give money to political candidates are called:
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campaign spending is legally considered freedom of speech.
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In Buckley v. Valeo, the Supreme Court ruled that:
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has extensive political experience as an elected official within the state.
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According to the Devine & Kopko article, presidential candidates do not gain many votes in a state simply by selecting a vice presidential candidate from that state. Instead, a large "vice presidential home state advantage" is likely to occur only when the vice presidential candidate: first, comes from a small home state; and, second...
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home state advantage in a given election
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The dependent variable (i.e. the outcome being predicted) in Devine & Kopko's hypothesis is the vice presidential candidate's _________.
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1884
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To test their hypothesis, Devine & Kopko analyze data from presidential elections since:
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Alaska
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After John McCain selected Sarah Palin as his running mate in 2008, the Obama campaign (signaling its belief in the likelihood of a vice presidential home state advantage) pulled all of its television advertisements, cut campaign spending, and closed campaign offices in the state of ________.
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30%
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Winning a vice presidential candidate's home state is unlikely to change the outcome of a presidential election. After all, according to Adkison's (1982) research, a change in one state's vote would have changed the national election outcome in only _________ of elections between 1900 and 1980.
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candidates for election perform best within and near the locale in which they reside (in their hometown or home state, for instance).
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According to V.O. Key's "friends and neighbors" hypothesis...
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John Nance Garner
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Franklin Roosevelt's vice presidential running mate in the 1932 and 1936 presidential elections, who also previously served as House minority leader and Speaker of the House, was:
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0.69%
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According to the evidence presented by Devine & Kopko, the average (or "mean") vice presidential home state advantage is:
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9
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John W. Bricker served as Governor of Ohio, and later as Senator. In 1944, he was the Republican candidate for vice president. According to the data from Table 1, how many years of experience in state politics did Bricker have when he ran for vice president?
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the prospective vice presidential candidate was recently elected with at least 60% of the vote in his or her home state
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Selecting a vice presidential candidate in the hope of winning his or her home state is ill advised, based upon the findings from this article, unless three conditions are met. Those conditions include each of the following except:
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political parties
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During the Era of the Partisan Press (1787-1832), newspapers were funded by and operated on behalf of the:
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interpretive journalism
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"Facts do not speak for themselves; rather, they need to be understood in context." This belief, which has become increasingly common among journalists since the 1980s, has recently led to the adoption of what new journalistic standard? (Hint: Evidence of this new standard includes less descriptive news stories and shorter candidate sound bites.)
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PBS
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Which of the following is not a 24-hour cable news channel?
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Newspaper circulation and television network news audiences have decreased by about one-half since 1980.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the data presented in Figure 8.1?
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29
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According to the data presented in Table 8.2, the percentage of journalists who consider themselves to be liberal, or on the political left, is _______ points higher than the percentage of the public who consider themselves to be liberal, or on the political left.
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conservative
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Most major news outlets are owned by large multinational corporations, whose leaders share the interests and often the political views of the business community. For this reason, many people believe that the news media have a systematic ____________ bias.
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Barack Obama
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According to the data presented in Table 8.3, the candidate who received the most favorable treatment from the media (i.e. the lowest percentage of negative stories) in any presidential campaign between 1988 and 2008 was:
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minimal effects model
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Early researchers of media effects were surprised to find that candidate preferences did not change over the course of a campaign for most voters, despite being exposed to numerous campaign ads and news stories. Evidence such as this provided the basis for a new model of media influence, called the:
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agenda-setting
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The media "may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling [people] what to think about." This quote describes the media's power to influence public thinking about politics through a process that is called:
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framing
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According to the __________ hypothesis, the slant or angle journalists take on newsworthy issues can affect opinions about these issues.
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horse-race
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Coverage of political campaigns often focuses on who is winning, i.e. leading in the polls, rather than describing and analyzing the candidates' policies. This approach to campaign coverage is commonly known as _____________ journalism.
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paid candidate campaign ads
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Complete this sentence from the reading: "Surprising as it may seem at first glance, citizens learn more about substantive policy issues from the content of __________ than they do from television news coverage."
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