The impact and conditions under which student community involvement influences students' attitudes of political trust, political efficacy, and citizenship obligation are examined. (Author/DE)

A study was conducted to test the hypothesis that the mass media act as agents of social control by varying the coverage of political groups in relation to how deviant they perceive the groups to be. Editors from the 100 largest daily newspapers in the United States were asked to rate 11 political groups on four scales thought to measure political…

This study focuses on the political processes involved in the preparation and passage in 1973 of a school finance reform package in Illinois. The author places particular emphasis on how language was used to promote support for the legislation, how partisan politics affected voting patterns in the legislature on this issue, and how legislators…

This study examines the information sources and population characteristics that differentiate political opinion-leaders from nonleaders. A telephone poll of 339 subjects provided data indicating that political opinion leaders receive more information about candidates from all media, as well as through interpersonal communication, than do…

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…

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…

These two papers summarize a portion of a wide-ranging survey, conducted in Memphis, of children's political attitudes and knowledge. Inconclusive data on prime influences in the process of political socialization and a lack of data on lower income, rural, Southern, black children suggested the scope of the research. The students sampled were in…

Designed to provide an orientation in and foster sensitivity to the field of educational politics as it has evolved during the past decade, this monograph reviews, synthesizes, and evaluates selected literature in the field, and integrates theoretical analysis and empirical evidence. Three themes recur throughout the monograph--that there is a…

The "limited effect" model originated by Lazarsfeld is not sufficient for full analysis of the political influences effected by television advertisements for candidates for political office. Newer political communication research indicates that, in both British and American politics, television political commercials have eroded party…

The back-to-basics movement in part has resulted from public alarm over the increase in functional illiteracy--students' inability to solve everyday problems requiring basic language and mathematics skills. Although not all its adherents are politically and educationally conservative, those who support fundamentalist schools certainly are. These…

Converse's black-and-white model of attitude stability, in which there are some stable opinion holders and a group of nonopinion respondents whose positions vary over time, is supported. Relationships of education and political involvement to opinion holding suggest that respondents hold stable opinions on issues that are most important to them.…

Political psychology is the study of the bidirectional interaction of political and psychological processes. This academic discipline was founded after the First World War by Harold D. Lasswell. The content of political psychology is discussed and illustrative studies of the field are briefly summarized. (CS)

The Italian student movement's move from libertarian utopia to political terrorism is analyzed in terms of the social and economic crisis in Italy. This is characterized by the collapse of representative student institutions, the rise of dogmatism and sectarianism, and the glorification of violence as a means of social change. (JMF)

Evaluates the reliability, concurrent validity, and comparative predictive validity of political sophistication in comparison to those of exposure, attention, and civics knowledge. Suggests that political sophisticates do not simply consume more news but process it differently than their less-sophisticated counterparts. (SR)

Follows Kumar Goshal's life, which led him from the theatre to a position with the "National Guardian," where he was revered as an expert on Asia and Africa and the struggles going on throughout the underdeveloped world. Focuses on the viewpoint on world affairs that he introduced to leftists. (JS)