Delli Carpini, Michael X

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  • Publication
    Effects of the News Media Environment on Citizen Knowledge of State Politics and Government
    (1994-07-01) Delli Carpini, Michael X; Keeter, Scott; Kennamer, J. David
    This multivariate analysis shows that residents in and near Richmond, Virginia, where the state capital is located, are significantly more knowledgeable about state politics than are residents living elsewhere in the state, especially in the northern Virginia - Washington, D.C. metro area. A newspaper content analysis demonstrates that Richmond- area residents are exposed to far more news of state politics and government than are residents of northern Virginia. The study suggests that the media environment is highly important in providing the opportunity for citizens to learn about politics.
  • Publication
    Stability and Change in the U.S. Public's Knowledge of Politics
    (1991) Delli Carpini, Michael X; Keeter, Scott
    The U.S. public's current knowledge about politics is compared with levels of knowledge in the 1940s and 1950s. Fourteen questions asked by Gallup on various surveys from 1945 to 1957 were included on a larger survey of political knowledge conducted by telephone in 1989 with a randomly selected sample of 610 adult U.S. residents. On 8 of the 14 items, the percentage answering correctly in 1989 was higher than in the earlier surveys (by 4-15 points). One item showed an increase of 1 percent, two were down 1 percent, and three others declined by 5 percent, 9 percent, and 10 percent. When level of education is controlled, however, levels of knowledge appear to have declined for most of the items. A reanalysis of some of the original Gallup data is used to estimate the effectiveness of schools in transmitting political information in 1989 compared with the earlier years.
  • Publication
    The Year of the Woman? Candidates, Votes and the 1992 Elections
    (1993) Delli Carpini, Michael X; Williams, Bruce A
    The struggle for political power has been long and difficult for women in the United States. The barriers to participation in politics have been both legal and cultural, overt and subtle. In colonial America there were few direct limits on women's participation. However, the combination of franchise restrictions based on property ownership and the overwhelming propensity for property to be held in a man's name meant that few women participated in electoral politics as either voters or officeholders.
  • Publication
    An Analysis of Information Items on the 1990 and 1991 NES Surveys
    (1992) Delli Carpini, Michael X; Keeter, Scott
    Empirical studies addressing questions of political information and/or sophistication are common and varied. Some assume the importance of an informed citizenry, and attempt to gauge the level, distribution, and correlates of political knowledge in the U.S. public (Hyman and Sheatsley, 1947; Kriesberg, 1949; Metzner, 1949; Berelson, et al., 1954; Hero, 1959; Withey, 1962; Erskine, 1962; 1963a; 1963b; 1963c; Patchen, 1964; D. Smith, 1970; Glenn, 1972; Keeter and Zukin, 1983; Sigelman and Yanarella, 1986; Bennett, 1988; 1989; Entman, 1989; Zeigler and Haltom, 1989; Delli Carpini and Keeter, 1989; 1992). Others begin to actually specify and test the assumption that an informed citizen is a "better" citizen. This approach conceptualizes political knowledge as part of the broader constructs of political "sophistication" (Converse, 1964; Neuman, 1986; Luskin, 1987; Smith, 1989), "awareness" (Zaner, 1990), "expertise" (Lodge, McGraw, and Stroh, 1989; McGraw and Pinney, 1990; Krosnick, 1990), "information" (MacKuen, 1984; Sniderman, Glaser, and Griffin, 1990), or "enlightened preferences" (Bartels, 1990). Finally, rather than lamenting the relatively low levels of political sophistication, or attempting to demonstrate the importance of individual-level knowledge, some researchers focus on the rationality of the citizens' "decision" not to seek out political information; on the ability of citizens to reach rational, effective decisions without much political information; and on the ways in which relatively uninformed individual decisions can result in surprisingly stable, "informed" collective decisions (Graber, 1988; Aldrich, Sullivan, and Borgida, 1989; Rahn, et al., 1990; Carmines and Kuklinski, 1990; Stimson, 1990; Page and Shapiro, 1991).
  • Publication
    Gen.com: Youth, Civic Engagement, and the New Information Environment
    (2000-01-01) Delli Carpini, Michael X
    What follows is an exploratory examination of the current disengagement of young Americans from public life, some thoughts on the roots of this disengagement, and speculations on the ways in which new technologies such as the Internet might be used to improve this state of affairs. It is meant to be a starting point for discussion.
  • Publication
    Review of Michael Schudson, The Good Citizen: A History of American Civic Life
    (2000-01-01) Delli Carpini, Michael X
    In his important and provocative book, The Good Citizen, Michael Schudson argues that there have been four distinct eras of American civic life, each characterized by a different model of citizenship. In the first era, roughly corresponding to the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, citizens deferred to the leadership of political elites, and civic responsibility consisted mainly of affirming the legitimacy of this ruling caste. In the second era, in place throughout the remainder of the nineteenth century, citizens played a more central role, though one orchestrated by strong local party organizations that mobilized the masses through patronage, entertainment, and other individual, material rewards rather than through detailed appeals to ideology or issues.
  • Publication
    Black Panther Party: 1966-1982
    (2000-01-01) Delli Carpini, Michael X
    The Black Panther party was founded in Oakland, California, in 1966. From its beginnings as a local, community organization with a handful of members, it expanded into a national and international party. By 1980, however, the Black Panther party was once again mainly an Oakland-based organization, with no more than fifty active members. In 1982, the party came to an official end. Despite its relatively short history, its modest membership, and its general eschewing of electoral politics, the Black Panther party was arguably the best known and most controversial of the black militant political organizations of the 1960s, with a legacy that continues to this day.
  • Publication
    In Search of the Information Citizen: What Americans Know About Politics and Why It Matters
    (1999-11-12) Delli Carpini, Michael X
    In The Good Citizen, Michael Schudson describes four interconnected but ultimately distinct eras of American civic life, each characterized by the dominance of a particular model of citizenship. In the first era, roughly corresponding to the 18th and early 19th centuries, citizens deferred to the leadership of political elites – civic responsibility consisted mainly of affirming the legitimacy of this ruling caste. The second era, in place throughout the remainder of the 19th century, was characterized by the dominance of political parties. In this period, citizens played a more central role, though this role was orchestrated by strong local party organizations that mobilized the masses through the tangible incentives of patronage, entertainment and other individual, material rewards rather than through detailed appeals to ideology or issues.
  • Publication
    Fictional and Non Fictional Television Celebrates Earth Day: Or, Politics Is Comedy Plus Pretense
    (1994) Delli Carpini, Michael X; Williams, Bruce A
    While there is much new work in the field of communications that challenges such distinctions, many scholars who study the medium still assume a clear and natural separation between fictional and non-fictional television. Falling into the former category are most prime-time shows, specials, movies and other broadcasts serving, it is assumed, primarily as entertainment. Further, many scholars assume that such shows have little impact on the way people think about the 'real world', in general, and politics, in particular. In the latter category are shows like the news, documentaries and other public-affairs programming. Such shows are assumed to deal with events or conditions in the 'real world'. With few exceptions, for example, political scientists examine only 'nonfiction' television when they search for the effect of the medium on political attitudes and beliefs. In this paper we critically examine the distinction between 'fiction' and non-fiction' television, arguing that it does not hold up under close scrutiny. Indeed, its unexamined persistence tends to blind scholars to the full political implications of television for democratic politics in the United States.
  • Publication
    The Tasks in Creating a New Journalism
    (2004-01-01) Delli Carpini, Michael X
    Journalism is not going to disappear. As author Michael Schudson observed, if there were not journalists, we’d have to invent them. The real issue is what journalism will look like and if it — and the larger media environment of which it is a part — will ably serve our democracy.