E5: Practice Questions

1. Interest groups are used to support certain ideals and opinions in government. They are there to show congress people that there is a group of people who care about these issues, and want to do something to change.
2. Political Parties are there to produce a candidate that they deem as portraying their political ideas. They also appeal to the masses on all ideas and do not focus on just one policy to work on. 
3. Interest Groups can appeal to political parties through bribery and other gifts. Also, they can protest and send letters to congress. For example, giving gifts to people of congress to "help" them pick their side in policy. 
4. They can Protest issues in a calm and organized matter to show that there are people who do care about this issue. Also they can do write ins (like Amnesty does). Groups of people who agree or disagree on a policy can come together and write letters to congress to help influence them. 

E4: Interest Groups

A) Background

1. An interest group gives ideas to candidates to make policy, they do not necessarily run for office, but they do support candidates who believe in their ideals.
2. Interest groups are different from political parties because interest groups are focused more on one form of policy and they generally do not run for office. 
3. Pluralist would be happy about the increase of interest groups because their theory would be supported. Their theory is that government does make the final decisions, but the people influence those decisions.
4. I have no clue honestly.
5. A Free Rider is someone who does not associate with any political groups or policy. 

B) The Females For Freedom Initiative

1. The goal of this group is to expand on women's rights and give us a voice in the government.
2. Females and other Female-identifying groups will benefit the most from this. 
3. Public Interest Group
4. Well to generally make the world a better place with no discrimination is one goal that I think will benefit the general population.
5. Make it fun and exciting for them. Get people fired up about issues, and let them know that they do have an influence on government.
6. We will be trying to influence the House as our top goal, but local and state government will be reachable as well. 

Monday Morning blog

I read "Attack Ravages Power Grid. (Just a Test)"
A company called GridEx ran these tests to see the reaction of people and services during a mass outage of power and internet. From the test results we see now, Gerry W. Cauley says that we did really well, with only a total of 150 "deaths". We will not know the official results until the GridEx group comes out with them. It was really interesting to see what would happen if the United States were to go through a full on power outage, especially since our society is set in technology. Although, I don't think the actual thing will go so smoothly. In a controlled environment, things tend to go much more smoother than in real life.

E3: Political Websites

1. I visited Politico
2. Not any of the top stories first displayed are opinionated, but once you get more deep into the site (especially in the "Opinion" section), you see some opinionated titles.
3. Most of the content is fact based, using quotes directly from the speaker and using them in the article. They give straight, clear cut information on this site. x
4. Most of the things are cited from press conferences and other meetings. 
5. This site is aimed more towards a liberal point of view, seeing that their stories are all very liberal based. All of the headlines are dealing with the topic of the affordable health care act and the way that other democrats feel about it. 
6.  If Americans just visit one site like this, they will just learn about one side and one opinion on the issue. Before you pick a side to agree or disagree with, it is always good to hear both, but when you only see one, you may form your opinion on that. 

E1: Media!

1. The five types of mass media are print, radio, television, telecommunications, and internet.
2. News from print media has changed so much over the last 200 years, especially in the recent decades. Now, more print papers are not going out in print, but on the internet. A few years ago, it was not common to put the news on the internet.
3. Yellow Journalism is sensationalist tabloid reporting. the stories are more exaggerated in yellow journalism,  and are mostly used to make money. 
4. Muckraking is researching and exposing the wrongdoing that politicians did. Modern day publishers could do this by completing more research instead of putting out false claims.
5. Roosevelt used press conferences to publicize his ideas to the outside world.
6. Today, Obama uses social networks like Twitter and Facebook to reach younger voters (his target group), and to make him feel more approachable. 
7. Narrow casting: Showing programs biased towards certain ideas.
1. A possible benefit from this type of news casting is telling you the ideas of candidates that are running, and helping you shape your view of that person.
2. A disadvantage is shutting your view down to only one idea, and not getting to see the other sides of arguments. 

D8: Election Recap

• Terry McMuffin 
• He won the Gubernatorial race
• His support was mostly from unmarried women, pro-choice, and Washington DC voters.
• No one was a really strong supporter of either candidate. 
• Ralph Northam
• Won the race for Lieutenant Governor
• Northam is strongly pro-choice and supports gay marriage
• His focus is going to be on economic development, health care, and mental health. 

D7: Election Preview

• Cuccinelli was picked as candidate through a Political Convention rather than a Primary
• As we learned earlier in the year, people who are more extreme republicans/ democrats go to conventions to decide a candidate. This can lead to more extreme ideals being chosen, thus making their decision not appeal to the masses. 
• Terry McAuliffe's ideas on coal and off-shore drilling has changed. 
• Compared to his previous run for governor in 2006, McAuliffe has changed his opinion of not using coal as a resource, and not allowing off-shore drilling. 
• None of the major party candidates are liked
• Just from reading the general election coverage, you can tell that there is no personal favorite. Both of the candidates have major flaws in their systems, and would not be the best for Virginia. They are both very vicious towards each other, and have had their share of lies and deceit.