Learning Objectives
- Understand how public opinion is fluid, often not unified, and shapable.
- Discuss differing theories about public opinion formation and expression and the degree to which it is meaningful.
- Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and constructing the instruments used to do so.
- Examine the contributors to individual attitudes and public opinion.
- Evaluate the power of individuals, events, and people’s interpretations of events to make lasting change in American politics.