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Test Review for Media/Parties/Interest Groups Test

(An exam so difficult the CDC has quarantined my home computer, lest the test spread to other school computers, leading inexorably to panicked students rioting, pillaging, and wearing ever droopier pants. The horror, the horror.)

  History of the Media

            Party press

            Rise of mass media

            Objectivity

            Rise of broadcast journalism

            Vietnam, Watergate and the adversarial press

Current issues

Libel

            What do you need to show to win a libel case

            Libel defenses

            New York Times V. Sullivan

                        Willful negligence and actual malice

            The Zenger case

Prior restraint

            Near v. Minnesota

            New York Times v. US

            CNN v Noriega

Regulation of the broadcast media

            Fairness doctrine, equal time rule, right of rebuttal, decency

Bias

            Goldberg’s allegations

            Parenti’s allegations

            Sella’s allegations

            Reporter-editor bias

            Source bias

            Audience bias

Power of the media

            Agenda setting

            Focus

            Ability to sway voter decisions

            Dependency of politicians on the media

            Dependency of the media on politicians

Off the Record/on the record/on background

 

Parties

Comparison of US parties to European counterparts

History of the parties

            Founding, historical coalitions, modern coalitions

Functions of the parties

            Recruiting candidates

            Voter mobilization

            Fundraising

            Party identification

            Organizational

            Policy entrepreneurs

Nominating candidates

                        Caucuses – history and current use

Conventions – history and current use

Primaries – history and current use

                                    Closed and open primaries

Organization of the parties

Weakening of the parties

            Reasons why

            Impact

Impact of 3rd parties

            Why do they tend not to win elections, but still have influence?

Electoral realignments

            What are they? When do they happen? When was the last one?

Interest Groups

Federalist #10 –

            Causes of factions

            Dangers of factions

            How the Constitution handles the problems of factions

Pluralism and its critics

Campaign Finance Law

            Buckley v. Valeo

            Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act

                        Soft money

                        Issue ads

                        Individual and PAC contributions

                        527s

                        Randall v Sorrell, Federal Election Commission v Wisconsin Right to Life

                        Citizens United v FEC

Growth of interest groups

            Why are there more of them?

            Who tends to be in them?

Interest Group Tactics

            Going public

                        Industrial advertising

                        Grassroots lobbying

                        Astroturf lobbying

            Lobbying

                        Political Action Committees

                        Military industrial complex and other iron triangles

                        The “revolving door”

            Litigation

                        Groups who have used it successfully

                                    Environmental, women’s rights and disability rights groups

General -- How are parties different that interest groups (goals, tactics, membership)