Outside Lobbying: Public Opinion and Interest Group Strategies. By Ken Kollman. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998. 215p. $55.00 cloth, $19.95 paper.

2001 ◽  
Vol 95 (2) ◽  
pp. 476-478
Author(s):  
Gary McKissick
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Interest Group ◽  
The Public ◽  
Princeton University ◽  
To Come ◽  
Plain Folk ◽  
Playing Fields ◽  
Interest Group Strategies

In an age when commercials bombard us with plain folk (from central casting) ruminating about the latest proposal in Congress and when "astroturf" more often refers to syn- thetically manufactured grassroots activity than to stadium playing fields, evidence that groups frequently "go public" is easy to come by. Nevertheless, these efforts to reach and use the public have received little systematic attention from political scientists. Ken Kollman aims to fill this substantial gap in interest group scholarship. Outside Lobbying is an impressive effort, one that should invigorate further inquiry into this important aspect of interest group advocacy.

Representatives of the public? Public opinion and interest group activity

2013 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 250-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Rasmussen ◽  
Brendan J. Carroll ◽  
David Lowery
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Interest Group ◽  
Group Activity ◽  
The Public

scholarly journals Harnessing the Persuasive Power of Narrative: Science, Storytelling, and Movie Censorship, 1930–1968

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Kirby
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Relations ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Deficit Model ◽  
The Public ◽  
Persuasive Power ◽  
History Of ◽  
To Come ◽  
Communication Approach

ArgumentAs the deficit model's failure leaves scientists searching for more effective communicative approaches, science communication scholars have begun promoting narrative as a potent persuasive tool. Narratives can help the public make choices by setting out a scientific issue's contexts, establishing the stakes involved, and offering potential solutions. However, employing narrative for persuasion risks embracing the same top-down communication approach underlying deficit model thinking. This essay explores the parallels between movie censorship and the current use of narrative to influence public opinion by examining how the Hays Office and the Catholic Legion of Decency responded to science in movies. I argue that deploying narratives solely as public relations exercises demonstrates the same mistrust of audiences that provided the foundation of movie censorship. But the history of movie censorship reveals the dangers of using narrative to remove the public's agency and to coerce them towards a preferred position rather than fostering their ability to come to their own conclusions.

scholarly journals The Context of Content: The Impact of Source and Setting on the Credibility of News

2013 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Bakker ◽  
Damian Trilling ◽  
Claes De Vreese ◽  
Luzia Helfer ◽  
Klaus Schönbach
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Interest Group ◽  
Information Sources ◽  
Information Gathering ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Public ◽  
News Organizations ◽  
News Outlet ◽  
The Impact

Twitter, blogs and alternative news sites play an increasingly important role in the realm of news and journalism. Journalists often use Twitter to survey the public opinion and to gather information for their articles. At the same time, there has been an explosive growth of non-journalistic websites that have started to compete with professional news organizations for the attention from the audience. What do these trends mean for the credibility of news that citizens consume? In a survey-embedded experiment (N=1,979) we address this question by investigating argument credibility within news articles, varying the sources that are cited, the type of news outlet and the style of information gathering by the journalist. Confirming our hypothesis, the results show that arguments are more credible when experts are cited instead of random citizens. However, it appears that the credibility of arguments is judged the same, regardless of the type of online outlet (either the website of an interest group or the website of an independent quality newspaper). Further, arguments based on information from Twitter and based on face-to-face interviews are judged differently under specific conditions. The apparent indifference of citizens towards the origin and interests of information sources has significant democratic implications.

Kosovo and Metohija or the European Union ‒ a rhetorical dilemma in the Serbian political discourse

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (4/2019) ◽  
pp. 173-192
Author(s):  
Ksenija Marković ◽  
Marko Jovanović ◽  
Branka Matijević
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Research Question ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Essential Condition ◽  
The Public ◽  
Study Results ◽  
The Status ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Eu

As the loss of Kosovo has been de facto re-inflicted in recent years, the question should be raised as to how great an influence the Kosovo myth wields today. It is particularly interesting to consider the issue in the context of European integration and the fact that recognition of Kosovo and Metohija’s self-proclaimed independence is usually stated as an essential condition and a key obstacle to Serbia’s accession to the EU. It is an undisputable fact that Kosovo and Metohija and the Kosovo myth are a part of culture, history, religion, and folklore of Serbian people, and it is without doubt difficult to renounce all that, even if personal and collective prosperity is offered in lieu of it, which is deemed by a certain portion of the Serbian public to come as a result of the accession to the EU. The aim of this paper is to establish which portion of public opinion is willing to make such a sacrifice in relation to the current attempts at resolution of the Kosovo question. It is the authors’ ambition to answer the following question: To what extent does the position on the status of Kosovo and Metohija influence the public opinion on Serbia’s membership in the European Union? With an intention of answering the research question the authors rely on the data acquired through empirical-quantitative study The Notions of the EU and Russia in the Serbian Public 2018, Institute of Social Sciences Belgrade, where a structured on-line questionnaire was used as a means of data collection. The study results clearly indicate the popular support for Serbia’s accession to the EU while at the same time the method of resolution of the Kosovo question deeply impacts the public opinion on Serbia’s membership in the EU. A conclusion can be drawn that, if the public is presented with the choice between Kosovo and the EU, the certainty of citizens opting for the EU will rapidly decline.

scholarly journals Between the Public and the State: The Shipping Lobby's Strategies against US Immigration Restrictions 1882–1917

2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 344-374
Author(s):  
Torsten Feys
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Interest Group ◽  
Immigration Reform ◽  
Top Down ◽  
The Public ◽  
Migrant Communities ◽  
The Press ◽  
Us Immigration

Based on Freeman's model of interest group-driven migration policies, the article gives a qualitative inside look on a neglected actor during the formative years of US immigration reform. It analyzes the central role of the shipping companies in coordinating the pro-immigration campaign with and against other interest groups. Their lobbying is divided into two complementary sections: inside top-down efforts (lobbyists) to influence legislators and outside bottom-up efforts (migrant communities and the press) to mobilize the public. It assesses the importance of public opinion in their lobby campaigns and the shipping companies’ success in delaying far-reaching restrictions until 1917.

Trust in the Police: Cross-country Comparisons

2012 ◽  
pp. 24-47
Author(s):  
V. Gimpelson ◽  
G. Monusova
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Crime Rates ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
The Public ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Cross Country ◽  
Police Activity

Using different cross-country data sets and simple econometric techniques we study public attitudes towards the police. More positive attitudes are more likely to emerge in the countries that have better functioning democratic institutions, less prone to corruption but enjoy more transparent and accountable police activity. This has a stronger impact on the public opinion (trust and attitudes) than objective crime rates or density of policemen. Citizens tend to trust more in those (policemen) with whom they share common values and can have some control over. The latter is a function of democracy. In authoritarian countries — “police states” — this tendency may not work directly. When we move from semi-authoritarian countries to openly authoritarian ones the trust in the police measured by surveys can also rise. As a result, the trust appears to be U-shaped along the quality of government axis. This phenomenon can be explained with two simple facts. First, publicly spread information concerning police activity in authoritarian countries is strongly controlled; second, the police itself is better controlled by authoritarian regimes which are afraid of dangerous (for them) erosion of this institution.

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