Political Attitude

Essay #3 Emily Sawyer Civics and Economics H: Mr. Gain 3rd block 10/28/11 An individual’s political attitude can transpire from many sources. These sources can be identified as one’s Personal Background, the media’s influence, and an individual’s claimed opinion. Personal Background has a large effect on a person’s political attitude because it includes family, experiences in a person’s life, and that person’s age. People become accustomed to their own lives, and don’t realize how much every little thing about you makes you who you are.

Political attitude can be based on what an individual’s family has been telling them about the United States Government, but these things parents are telling their children, are the parent’s outlooks and attitudes. Such as a person who grew up with a full family of Republicans will most likely be a Republican. It’s almost like their family brainwashed them into having an exclusive political perspective. People can develop a political attitude through the experiences in their life such as where that person grew up as a child, or their family’s economic class.

A person who grew up in the southern states might be influenced to be a republican because in recent elections, southern state’s votes such as Alabama and Georgia’s came out as Republican. Age can also play a role in this because as everything changes and everyone changes, as so do times. Important events that would influence a person’s political view occur at different times. Media plays a role in the influence of political attitudes of American citizens today because within the last 50 years, there has been a significant advancement in technology.

First there was the telegraph, then the radio, the newspaper, magazines, television and now the internet. A regular person wakes up in the morning and either reads the newspaper or a magazine, or some type of news. So, just because one article says something about their political view, a person who often reads and agrees with the magazine might start thinking the same thing. Again, some type of brainwashing. In work we usually know what we have to do based on our experiences and studies, however in our daily lives we rely on the media to get the current news and facts about what is important and what we should be aware of.

An individual’s opinion is usually a combination of everything they know on the subject and what they are told and are willing to believe. So, our decisions, beliefs and values are based on what we know for a fact, our assumptions and our own experience. An individual’s political attitude can transpire from many sources. These sources can be identified as one’s Personal Background, the media’s influence, and an individual’s claimed opinion. A person’s political outlook can also change due to many of these things.