Chapter 7: Public Opinion at Home and Abroad

Annotated Internet References

A newer media conglomerate, Aljazeera (http://english.aljazeera.net) provides in-depth coverage of worldwide events. Specifically, Aljazeera covers events relevant to the Arab world. Included on this site are polls, news reports about world events, and cultural reports on Middle Eastern countries.

 

Based in England, the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk) is a large media hub for worldwide news coverage, which includes special reports on conflicts and major world events. The BBC has regional coverage for all major areas across the globe.

 

The Chicago Council on Foreign Relations (www.ccfr.org) is one of the world’s largest groups organized for studying and informing the community about world affairs. The Chicago Council is responsible for the biannual reports of worldviews of American and international public opinion on many aspects of U.S. foreign policy. It also hosts conferences and speakers and helps to sponsor public opinion studies regarding U.S. foreign policy.

 

CNN (www.cnn.com) is a communication hub for articles and news coverage of world issues. Included are articles from magazines such as Time as well as stories from the AP wire. Political coverage is both domestic and foreign, with a special focus on U.S. foreign policy.

 

The Gallup Organization (www.gallup.com) has studied public opinion and behavior for nearly a century and continues to conduct nationwide and international surveys regarding political and social issues. Surveys focus on presidential approval, current events, and conflicts.

 

The Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (www.icpsr.umich.edu) is a part of the University of Michigan and hosts historical and new databases ranging from public opinion to aggregate statistics. Data are deposited from news stations as well as from colleges and universities.

 

In conjunction with the University of Kentucky and the University of North Carolina, the National Network of State Polls (http://survey.rgs.uky.edu/nnsp) organizes and completes research on public opinion, with states as the unit of analysis. More than 350 studies are stored in the free data archives of the NNSP, in which questions range from domestic to international topics.

 

The National Opinion Research Center (www.norc.uchicago.edu) is responsible for national research specializing in public opinion data and analysis. Current research projects and special reports include studies of public responses to September 11.

 

The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press (http://people-press.org) is an independent, nonpartisan research center focusing on studying public opinion, press and media coverage, and political issues. The Pew Center conducts a wide range of surveys and allows the databases and reports to be accessed free of charge. The five areas of study are the people and the press; the people, the press, and politics; the news interest index; the United States’ place in the world; and media use. Much of the research by Pew is ongoing and conducted on current events topics.

 

Polling Report (www.pollingreport.com) is an independent, nonpartisan group that hosts public opinion data from a variety of sources and organizes them by research category. Of particular interest to foreign-policy researchers are topics such as national security, presidential elections, and the role of the United Nations.

 

Russia’s largest news and media source, Pravda (http://english.pravda.ru) provides articles and news coverage of world affairs and relations with the United States. Specific focus is given to the United Nations, eastern European relations, and critical views of the war on terrorism.

 

The Program on International Policy Attitudes (www.pipa.org) is part of the School of Public Affairs at the University of Maryland and focuses on public opinion and media coverage related to U.S. foreign policy and international issues. PIPA conducts its own nationwide surveys and studies on issues such as opinions on leaders, terrorism, globalization, arms control, and regional issues. Articles and studies are posted on the Web site.

 

Quinnipiac University (www.quinnipiac.edu/x705.xml) provides national survey trend polls to basic foreign and domestic policy questions such as presidential approval, war on terrorism opinion, and opinions of government leaders such as the vice president and other cabinet officials.

 

The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research (www.ropercenter.uconn.edu) offers access to public opinion and polling data through a large archive of historical and current data. Included are presidential approval, General Social Survey, National Election Survey, and a variety of other polls conducted by research groups.

 

The Washington Post (www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/polls/polls.htm) has articles related to public opinion and politics regarding policy issues. Included in the reports are data breakdowns and direct links to the Washington Post surveys. Specific research topics include public opinion toward the United Nations, the war on terrorism, relations with Iraq, and energy policies.

Additional Links of Interest

American Journal of Political Science (www.ajps.org)

American Political Science Review (www.apsa.com/pubs/)

American Politics Quarterly (www.uwm.edu/Org/APQ/)

Americans and the World (www.americans-world.org)

Columbia Journalism Review (www.cjr.org)

The Economist (www.economist.com)

Foreign Policy (www.foreignpolicy.com)

Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics (www.ksg.harvard.edu/presspol/Research_Publications/HIJPP.shtml)

International Interactions (www.vanderbilt.edu/psci/iij/iiweb.htm)

International Studies Quarterly (www.isq.unt.edu/)

Journal of Conflict Resolution (www.yale.edu/unsy/jcrhome1.htm)

Journal of Peace Research (www.prio.no/jpr)

Journal of Politics (http://journalofpolitics.org)

New York Times (www.nytimes.com)

Pew Global Attitudes Project (http://people-press.org/pgap/)

Political Behavior (www.uky.edu/Journals/PolBeh/)

Political Research Quarterly (www.prq.uncc.edu)

Political Science Quarterly (www.psqonline.org)

Presidential Studies Quarterly (www.thepresidency.org/psq/index.htm)

PS: Political Science and Politics (www.apsanet.org/PS/)

Public Opinion Quarterly (http://poq.oupjournals.org)

Social Science Quarterly (www.sssaonline.org/ssq.htm)

World Politics (www.press.jhu.edu/journals/world_politics/)

Suggested Readings Cited in Chapter 7

Bardes, Barbara. 1997. “Public Opinion and Foreign Policy: How Does the Public Think About America’s Role in the World?” in Understanding Public Opinion, ed. Barbara Norrander and Clyde Wilcox, 150–169. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press.

 

Baum, Matthew A. 2002. “Sex, Lies, and War: How Soft News Brings Foreign Policy to the Inattentive Public.” American Political Science Review 96 (March): 91–109.

 

Bennett, W. Lance, and David L. Paletz, eds. 1994. Taken by Storm: The Media, Public Opinion, and U.S. Foreign Policy in the Gulf War. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

 

Brace, Paul, and Barbara Hinckley. 1993. Follow the Leader: Opinion Polls and the Modern Presidents. New York: Basic Books.

 

Burton, Daniel F., Jr. 1997. “The Brave New Wired World.” Foreign Policy 106 (Spring): 23–37.

 

Chicago Council on Foreign Relations. 2002. “Worldviews 2002: American Public Opinion and Foreign Policy.” Available www.worldviews.org/detailreports/usreport/index.htm.

 

Entman, Robert M. 2004. Projections of Power: Framing News, Public Opinion, and U.S. Foreign Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

 

Fallows, James M. 1997. Breaking the News: How the Media Undermine American Democracy. New York: Vintage.

 

Foyle, Douglas C. 1999. Counting the Public In: Presidents, Public Opinion, and Foreign Policy. New York: Columbia University Press.

 

Holsti, Ole R. 1992. “Public Opinion and Foreign Policy: Challenges to the Almond-Lippmann Consensus.” International Studies Quarterly 36 (December): 439–466.

 

Jentleson, Bruce W. 1992. “The Pretty Prudent Public: Post Post-Vietnam American Opinion on the Use of Military Force,” International Studies Quarterly 36 (March): 49–73.

 

Katovsky, Bill, and Timothy Carlson, eds. 2003. Embedded: The Media at War in Iraq. Guilford, Conn.: Lyons Press.

 

Kull, Steven, and I. M. Destler. 1999. Misreading the Public: The Myth of a New Isolationism. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.

 

Kull, Steven, Clay Ramsay, and Evan Lewis. 2003–2004. “Misperceptions, the Media, and the Iraq War.” Political Science Quarterly 118 (Winter): 569–598.

 

Kurtz, Howard. 1998. Spin Cycle: How the White House and the Media Manipulate the News. New York: Simon and Schuster.

 

Lewis, David A., and Roger P. Rose. 2002. “The President, the Press, and the War-Making Power: An Analysis of Media Coverage prior to the Persian Gulf War,” Presidential Studies Quarterly 32 (September): 559–571.

 

Mooney, Chris. 2004. “The Editorial Pages and the Case for War: Did Our Leading Newspapers Set Too Low a Bar for a Preemptive Attack?” Columbia Journalism Review (March–April): 28–34.

 

Norris, Pippa, Mantague Kern, and Marion Just, eds. 2003. Framing Terrorism: The News Media, the Government, and the Public. New York: Routledge.

 

Nye, Joseph S., Jr. 2004. Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics. New York: Public Affairs.

 

Page, Benjamin I., and Jason Barabas. 2000. “Foreign Policy Gaps between Citizens and Leaders.” International Studies Quarterly 44 (September): 339–364.

 

Sobel, Richard. 2001. The Impact of Public Opinion on U.S. Foreign Policy Since Vietnam. New York: Oxford University Press.

 

Strobel, Warren P. 1997. Late-Breaking Foreign Policy: The News Media’s Influence on Peace Operations. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Institute of Peace Press.

Suggested Readings Following the Themes of Chapter 7

Asmus, Ronald, Philip P. Everts, and Pierangelo Isernia. 2004. “Power, War, and Public Opinion.” Policy Review (February–March): 73–89. Available www.policyreview.org/feb04/asmus.html.

 

Baum, Matthew. 2003. Soft News Goes to War: Public Opinion and American Foreign Policy in the News Media Age. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

 

Baum, Matthew A. 2002. “The Constituent Foundations of the Rally-Round-the-Flag Phenomenon.” International Studies Quarterly 46 (June): 263–298.

 

Hermann, Richard K., Philip E. Tetlock, and Matthew N. Diascro. 2001. “How Americans Think About Trade: Reconciling Conflicts among Money, Power, and Principles.” International Studies Quarterly 45 (June): 191–218.

 

Hess, Stephen, and Marvin Kelb, eds. 2003. The Media and the War on Terrorism. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.

 

Hetherington, Marc J., and Michael Nelson. 2003. “Anatomy of a Rally Effect: George W. Bush and the War on Terrorism.” PS: Political Science and Politics (January): 37–42.

 

Holsti, Ole R. 2004. Public Opinion and American Foreign Policy. Rev. ed. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

 

Jamieson, Kathleen H., and Paul Waldan. 2003. The Press Effect: Politicians, Journalists, and the Stories That Shape the Political World. New York: Oxford University Press.

 

Jentleson, Bruce W., and Rebecca L. Britton. 1998. “Still Pretty Prudent: Post–Cold War American Public Opinion on the Use of Military Force.” The Journal of Conflict Resolution 42 (August): 395–417.

 

Klarevas, Louis. 2002. “The ‘Essential Domino’ of Military Operations: American Public Opinion and the Use of Force.” International Studies Perspectives 3 (November): 417–438.

 

Lewis, Justin. 2001. Constructing Public Opinion: How Political Elites Do What They Like and Why We Seem to Go Along with It. New York: Columbia University Press.

 

Manza, Jeff, Fay L. Cook, and Benjamin I. Page, eds. 2002. Navigating Public Opinion: Polls, Policy, and the Future of American Democracy. New York: Oxford University Press.

 

Meernik, James, and Michael Ault. 2001. “Public Opinion and Support for U.S. Presidents’ Foreign Policies.” American Politics Research 29 (July): 352–374.

 

Nacos, Brigitte L., Robert Y. Shapiro, and Pierangelo Isernia, eds. 2000. Decisionmaking in a Glass House: Mass Media, Public Opinion, and American and European Foreign Policy in the 21st Century. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield.

 

Palmer, Nancy, ed. 2003. Terrorism, War, and the Press. Hollis, N.H.: Hollis Publishing Company.

 

Rosenau, James N., and J. P. Singh, eds. 2002. Information Technologies and Global Politics: The Changing Scope of Power and Governance. Albany: State University of New York Press.

 

Soroka, Stuart N. 2003. “Media, Public Opinion, and Foreign Policy.” Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics 8 (Winter): 27–49.

 

Witko, Christopher. 2003.“Cold War Belligerence and U.S. Public Opinion toward Defense Spending.” American Politics Research 31 (July): 379–403.

 

Yankelovich, Daniel, and I. M. Destler, eds. 2000. Beyond the Beltway: Engaging the Public in U.S. Foreign Policy. Rev. ed. New York: W. W. Norton.

 

Zaller, John R. 1992. The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. New York: Cambridge University Press.

 

Zelizer, Barbie, and Stuart Allan, eds. 2002. Journalism After September 11. New York: Routledge.