Definitions
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Check THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY
is who gets what, when, where, and how. ~ Harold Dwight Lasswell
AGENDA - A set of policies or issues to be addressed/pursued by an individual or group. Many agendas exist in the political arena: campaign agendas, public agendas, and interest group agendas to name a few. According to agenda-setting theory (proposed by Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw in the 1970's) the media sets the agenda for public opinion by highlighting certain issues. Based on their research they alleged that the main effect of the media in political campaigns was to tell the people NOT what to think, but what to think about. Think of a campaign's agenda as its message to voters, telling them why they should vote for the candidate.
B
COLLABORATION - Working with one another to accomplish a common objective.
COMMON GOOD - Working together for the welfare of the community or the benefit of all.
CAMPAIGN LITERATURE - Information about a candidate for public office that is circulated to voters in printed form (such as pamphlets, flyers, or even e-mail), the intent is to market that candidate so that voters will support him/her in the election. Campaign literature is a form of direct mail marketing, meaning it is sent directly to voters. Typically the campaign literature is addressed to specific targeted voters, but it may also be delivered unaddressed by having an independent company "door drop" the information.
DOMESTIC POLICY - Domestic policy leadership is one of the key roles of the President. Domestic policy is an umbrella term used to refer to any public policies, programs or actions dealing with matters internal to the country. The Domestic Policy Council works in the White House to advise the President on domestic policy issues.
E
FOREIGN POLICY - Refers to a countries' policy for interacting with, responding to, or cooperating with, other nations around the world. Generally, foreign policies protect a country's national interests, national security, ideological goals, and economic prosperity.
FRAME (AN ISSUE) - An attempt to shape the way the public views an issue by influencing or controlling media content and public communication. Framing impacts the public discourse over an issue by establishing desirable interpretations of an issue or problem and ruling out others. A popular example of framing is the term "tax relief" which implies that taxes put a strain on citizens. George Lakoff is a leading scholar on this topic.
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HARD MONEY - Regulated contributions that are made directly to the candidate and the name of the donor must become public knowledge.
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MEDIA - A means of communication, including TV, radio, newspapers, internet, etc. In a political advertising campaign, paid media refers to media coverage purchased by the candidate's campaign; in contrast, earned media refers to free media coverage which appears as news rather than advertising. Examples of earned media include newspaper articles, TV news stories, letters to the editors, Web news and polling results.
O
PARTY PLATFORM - A party platform is a written statement of principles and plans which the party supports. It is usually developed by a committee at the party convention during a presidential campaign.
POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (PACs) - Organizations established by businesses, labor unions, and interest groups to channel financial contributions into political campaigns. Check out OpenSecrets.org for more insight into their role in political campaigns. A PAC can give $5,000 to a candidate per election (primary, general or special) and up to $15,000 annually to a national political party. PAC's can also run ads that expressly advocate the election or defeat of a candidate with the words "vote for," "vote against," "elect," "defeat," "support" and "oppose."
also, related terms
INTEREST GROUPS - An organization that tries to achieve at least some of their goals with government assistance. If the organization is classified as a tax exempt group it may raise unlimited "soft money," which can be used for voter mobilization and certain types of issue advocacy, but not for efforts that expressly advocate the election or defeat of a federal candidate.
LOBBYING - The efforts of interest groups trying to influence legislators or other public officials to vote or act in favor of a special interest
POLITICAL PARTY - An organization exercising or seeking power in the government. The U.S. is referred to as a two-party system because two political parties dominate the electoral process to such an extent that it becomes very difficult for third parties to successfully win election. The two major parties in two-party systems tend to be ideologically broad and inclusive rather than strongly right or left wing.
also, a related term
POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY - The power of the government comes from the people. The people are the ultimate authority over the government.
POTUS - President of the United States
PRESS RELEASE - A statement or news story prepared and distributed to the press by an outside entity (public relations firm, government agency, campaign press secretary, etc.)
PROPAGANDA - Information or ideas that are methodically spread to promote or injure a particular cause, product, movement, etc.
PUBLIC DISCOURSE - Discussion of a subject matter by a particular group of people with a common interest such as a community, state of nation.
PUBLIC OPINION - The collective opinion of many people on some issue. In theory, our interest in public opinion stems from the belief that in a democracy, government should be responsive to the wishes of the people.
PUBLIC POLICY - According to Thomas Dye, public policy is "what governments do, why they do it, and what difference it makes." It is the basic policy (or policies) that form the foundation for public laws.
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SLOGAN - A distinctive phrase or motto that is identified with a particular party, candidate, product, etc.
SOFT MONEY - Unregulated contributions to political parties that are theoretically spent on party building activities, such as issue ads and get out the vote campaigns. Such spending is often called a major loophole in federal campaign spending law. Check out OpenSecrets.org for more information.
STAKEHOLDER - One who has a stake or an interest in some initiative.
STORYBOARD - A series of diagrams that are used in video production to describe the composition of a video segment. A storyboard provides details about the audio and visual elements that will make up the video project. Follow this link for guidance in creating a storyboard for this project: http://www2.hawaii.edu/%7Ericky/etec/storyboarding.html
STUMP SPEECH - One feature of the final phase of a presidential campaign is the development of a stump speech. The stump speech is the standard speech given by a candidate, to highlight his or her agenda for the next term of the presidency and to contrast with the agenda of the opponent. These speeches tend to use broad, general terms and espouse broad and general policies. The ultimate goal of these canned speeches is to attract the maximum number of voters
SUPPORT CONSTITUENCIES - Individuals or groups who advocate for election of a candidate who will represent them if elected (a constituency is a group or individual that will be represented by an elected officer). These groups may support a candidate financially through campaign contributions or they may advocate more publicly through advertisements or campaign literature.
SLOGAN - A distinctive phrase or motto that is identified with a particular party, candidate, product, etc. Examples of successful slogans include the famous I Like Ike used by President Eisenhower's campaign, or more recently George W. Bush's Compassionate Conservatism. Additional examples are available from the resources page.
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PRESS RELEASE TEMPLATE •DECISION MAKING TEMPLATE •ISSUE ANALYSIS REPORT •TEAM EVALUATION •WRAP-UP QUESTIONS
