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Does Public Opinion Form?

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What is public opinion? How does public opinion form? How does it relate to agents of political socialization? Public opinion is what the public thinks about an issue or a particular set of issues (Collins 1). The issues are normally measured by opinion polls. The opinion palls consist of interviews, telephone, and internet surveys of a variety of citizens take to estimate how they feel about an issue. These techniques are used to influence our voting since the 1930’s. Newspapers were a main material that was used to, not only predict elections, but to persuade the voters. Another technique that was used was the Gallup Organization in 1936 which successfully predicted elections and continued until 2012. Other techniques such as Literary Digest, The American Voters, Boston Globe, Public Opinion (1922), Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Fahrenheit 911, and Federalist Papers were used as an effort to influence public opinion. …show more content…

Family, peer and level of education are major influence in voting for elections and relates to agent of political socialization. Political socialization is a person’s political belief and opinion that are influenced through family, peer groups, and mass media. The agent of political socialization are more like our values and what we have been taught, seen, or heard from our parents, friends, teachers, colleagues, and social groups. The agents help us determine if we are Democrats or Republicans when we are eligible to vote. These factors also influence social economics. For example, low income household tends to favor government role in economy or conservative while those who have high income tends to favor limited government or

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