UPDATES TO ON-LINE CLASS MATERIAL

For those who miss any of the in-class lecture experience:

Remember, all of the class lectures from which the essay exams are drawn from are on my website on the world wide web at: http://sds17.pspa.msstate.edu/classes/opinion/opinion.html

The written transcripts of those lectures are the following links on that webpage:

• For my syllabus, click here.
• Week 1, Introduction, Actual Class Lectures, Intro to Public Opinion
• Weeks 2-3- Polling, Actual Class Lectures, Political Polling Techniques
• Week 4- Domestic Economic Issues, Actual Class Lectures, Domestic Economic Issues
• Week 5- Crime Issues, Actual Class Lectures, Crime and Civil Liberty Issues
• Week 6- Race and Foreign Policy Issues, Actual Class Lectures, Race, Reform, Foreign Affairs Issues
• Review and Midterm Exam
• Week 8- Public Sophistication, Actual Class Lectures, Public Political Sophistication
• Week 9- Group Differences, Actual Class Lectures, Group Differences on Issues
• Week 10- Socialization, Actual Class Lectures, Socialization, Attitude Theories, Democratic Support
• Week 11- Presidential Popularity, Actual Class Lectures, Party, Ideology, President
• Weeks 12-13- Presidential Elections, Actual Class Lectures, Elections and Accountability
• Week 14- The Mass Media, Actual Class Notes, Mass Media and Interest Groups
• Week 15- Democracy, Actual Class Notes, Public Opinion and American Democracy

August 20, 2025- we just talked about the syllabus, the course requirements, and current events.

August 22, 2025. We covered introductory material from the Week 1 lectures listed above. We had a great class discussion about democracy, gerrymandering, and John Bolton's problems.

August 25, 2025. We covered the first three models whereby public opinion can affect public policy: the Rational Activist Model, the Political Parties Model, and the Interest Groups Model. We had great class discussion and comments on this subject.

August 27, 2025. We covered the Delegate Model and the Sharing Model. We also talked about 3 of Hanna Pitkin's Types of Representation- Formalistic, Descriptive, and Symbolic.

August 29, 2025. We covered the last two Pitkin types of representation, Virtual, and Acting For. Acting For is the only one really consistent with our five models of how Opinion is translated into Policy. We then started to talk about polling, discussing the four historic problems with polls.

September 3, 2025. We had a great discussion on current events, and how foreign events such as the Ukraine war may be so complex that the role of public opinion is limited. We then covered the important topics of the advantages and disadvantages of two types of surveys- in-person and telephone surveys. We also talked about how they have historically been conducted, and had some valuable student questions.

September 5, 2025. TBA.