A study examined differences in the language of direct mail advertising used by political campaigns at different levels--national state, and local. Seventeen direct mail fund-raising political campaign letters were content analyzed with Wiseman and Schenck-Hamlin's typology of compliance-gaining techniques, language style and readability. The…

Student involvement in the democratic process and understanding of the nature of public schools can be enhanced through the study of community school board elections. The materials in this instructional guide present basic information with related student learning activities to assist teachers in planning an election mini-unit. The unit may be…

The goal of this material is to explore some aspects of social choice theory that are thought to have potential usefulness in the practical design of decision-making procedures. The document is divided into three chapters: (1) Power in Voting Bodies; (2) Voting Methods for More Than Two Alternatives; and (3) Recent Approaches to Voting Using…

Written in Spanish, this booklet contains brief information on seven August events celebrated by Puerto Ricans: Herbert Hoover's birthdate (August 10); Acta del Seguro Social (Social Security Act, August 14); Julian E. Blanco (August 14), Enmienda 19 Sufragia de la Mujer (Amendment 19, Women's Suffrage, August 26); Benjamin Harrison (August 20);…

Guidelines for a school-wide simulated election on the state, county, or local level to be conducted by high school social studies or political science classes are provided. The objective is to prepare students for observation of and participation in a real political campaign in the community. Details for the election, establishing political…

A 3-part teaching unit acquaints secondary students with election procedures and with the issues surrounding the 1984 presidential election. While designed to accompany an educational television series on the 1984 election produced by Albany Educational Television (AET), materials may also be used independently and adapted to other elections. Part…

A study examined data from 1,828 adults in 17 cities in the United States to test a model of how community integration (sense of community) and use of media affected voting and other political participation. The portion of the model dealing with mass media included the new concept "quasi-mass media," which involves more personalized…

In an effort to discover the effects of mass media on viewer perception of candidates' positions, tests were administered to 10 to 12 families at each of five locations across the country immediately following each of the 1976 Carter-Ford debates. Sixteen statements were drawn from the presidential platform of each party and each statement was…

Although Arizona's Chicano population has increased since 1960, their generally lower socioeconomic status has had a direct impact on their voting participation. Such problems as language, altered polling places and precinct boundaries, absence of bilingual staff, and literacy tests have also contributed to the voting difficulties encountered by…

This issue of the "News Research Bulletin" contains reports on two studies of media use by contemporary young adults. The first study analyzes the media behavior of 447 randomly selected respondents in Virginia Beach, Virginia in the summer of 1973. Some of the highlights of the study were that about 90 percent of the young people report doing at…

The purposes of this book are to summarize and analyze the nature of public opinion in contemporary America and to examine the implications of that nature for the possibility of a functioning democracy. Material in the four sections covers the following topics: "The Study of Public Opinion: Political Theory and Methodology"--opinions and…

A conference of public broadcasters sponsored by the Aspen Institute discussed the role of noncommercial television in informing the public on political issues and covering political campaigns. The topics of discussion included: (1) governmental restrictions of public broadcasting, (2) governmental subsidies of political candidates, (3)…

The concept of alienation is discussed as an internalized state reacting to prevailing social conditions, and political behavior is hypothesized as being its outward manifestation. Purposes of this paper are threefold: (1) produce a new set of data to be used in exploring possible linkages between alienation and political behavior, (2)…

The authors identified those Community School Districts in New York City that have a minority population of at least 60 percent and also contain a non-Hispanic white residential enclave. By studying the election results for these school districts, the authors tested the hypothesis that non-Hispanic white middle-class voters had a disproportionate…

The results are reported of a survey of potential voters in Kansas City, Missouri, relative to their attitudes toward school levy elections. The survey encompassed four major areas, including residents' views on education in general, how they evaluated the public school system in their district, how they evaluated public schools in their…