| A | B |
|---|
| Nomination | the party deciding who will represent them for an election |
| Campaign strategy | a few strategies include: 1) picking a candidate who will be popular with a certain group (could be religious, gender, job-based, socio-economic status), 2) running a clean versus a dirty campaign (a clean campaign is when you focus only on what you believe in while a dirty campaign focuses on why your opponent is bad), 3) geographical strategies (campaigning only in certain locations that your party believes can be won), etc. |
| Presidential primaries | occur in different states so that each party can decide who their most popular presidential candidate will be |
| Super Tuesday | the day when many different presidential primaries occur all at once |
| Iowa caucus | first caucus of the season |
| Federal Elections Campaign Act | federal law which increased disclosure of contributions for federal campaigns and set the legal limits on campaign contributions |
| Soft Money | money given to political parties for purposes other than supporting specific candidates for public office |
| Buckley v Valeo | the Supreme Court upheld federal limits on campaign contributions, including the amount individuals could donate to their own campaign |
| Issue ads | advertisements that occur on issues that people feel strongly about |
| Selective perception | people only care about issues they want to |
| Coattails | campaigning on the win of someone in your party |
| Electoral college | this is how the president is elected |
| Faithless elector | a person participating in the electoral college who does not vote for the person they were committed to voting for |
| Retrospective voting | basing voting decisions on reactions to past performances whether they are approving or disapproving |
| Prospective voting | voting on the possibilities that could be |
| Mandate | the general idea that a person has the full support of people (or God) on their action |
| Initiative petition | people help propose the laws |
| Referendum | people directly vote on an issue |
| Voter registration | people have to register before they vote to verify their legitimate existence and that they are alive |
| Motor-voter law | to enhance peoples’ opportunities to vote |
| Political efficacy | general knowledge and understanding of how our government works |
| Civic duty | the duty to do certain things in a society |
| Legitimacy theory of elections | we are (in practice) limited to two parties, and some people feel this means we do not have a legitimate government |
| Mass media | easily accessible information available across the nation such as national news, newspapers, and the internet |
| Muckraking | talking smack about your opponent and dragging their name through the mud usually by bringing up personal information |
| Yellow journalism | using half-truths and half-lies to misrepresent a story |
| Leaks | information coming out that was “not planned” |
| Scoops | generally information that is received from leaks where the media knows something that other people do not |
| Political bias of media | each station/newspaper/website has their own agenda and preferences |
| Media’s role in setting the agenda | the media often dictates what people know and thus what they care about |
| Sound bites | little short clips played over and over |
| Adversarial relationships | sometimes the media is nice to politicians and parties and sometimes they are not |
| High-tech politics | using items like blogs, texting, and websites to spread information |
| Investigative journalism | journalism that researches significant and important issues |
| Press conference | called by a group, party or individual to discuss issues, events, etc. |
| Censorship | when the government or another group does not allow information to be dispersed |
| Trial balloons | information sent out to observe the reaction of the audience |
| Presidential debates | debates between presidential candidates |
| Media impact on public opinion | the media helps shape public opinion by showing specific news stories in a positive or negative light; also, they shape what is and is not showed |
| Media coverage of elections | non-stop during major elections, but they often focus on non-issues such as what people are wearing or sound-bites |
| Candidate-centered campaigns | focusing on the candidate rather than the party or the platform |
| 12th Amendment | procedure for electing the president and vice-president |
