Political Sciences
Choose only one area:
Environment / sustainability
or
Crime rates
or
The economy / jobs
or
Health care
or
Foreign policy / affairs
After selecting your chosen area, write an 8-10 page paper (double-spaced) which examines how the public has viewed the issue over time. You want to examine actual public opinion data which show how perspectives may have changed or stayed the same over the past few decades. Some questions you may also want to discuss include (select one or more of these, or highlight areas of your own): What have been trends in micro-level opinion that have affected the direction of macro-level opinion and how the issue has been framed? What has public opinion polling shown about group differences in how the issue is viewed (i.e. partisan, ideological, geography, gender, race, age, etc.)? What influence has the news media had in shaping how the issue is viewed and portrayed to the public, and what influence has this had on opinions relating to the issue? You do not need to select all of these questions, but may focus on one that is particularly applicable to your analysis, or you may also discuss one that you identify in your research. Remember to apply book and course content to your analysis.
***You want to make sure to analyze data from sites that utilize more scientific methods with representative sampling, proper question wording, and findings rather than random internet sites where the data may not be reliable.
Possible sites to research:
www.pollster.com (Links to an external site.)
www.pollingreport.com (Links to an external site.)
www.pollsandvotes.com (Links to an external site.)
www.gallup.com (Links to an external site.)
www.americanprogress.org (Links to an external site.)
www.publicagenda.org (Links to an external site.)
www.worldpublicopinion.org (Links to an external site.)
www.harrisinteractive.com (Links to an external site.)
www.electionstudies.org (Links to an external site.)
www.icpsr.umich.edu (Links to an external site.)
www.ipoll.com (Links to an external site.)
https://library.ucsd.edu/ (Links to an external site.)
www.odum.unc.edu/odum/home2.jsp (Links to an external site.)
http://ucdata.berkeley.edu (Links to an external site.)
Your assignment should be approximately 8-10 pages (double-spaced). Remember to use sources beyond the course textbook, and that plagiarism detection software is used (be careful not to overuse quotes or copy and paste from any source)
