In journalism, qualities that make stories “newsworthy” include conflict, timeliness, human interest, and more. “Infotainment,” or news programming that is meant to entertain, is builds on these characteristics as well as others, including humor, to attract viewers. …

So I learned about two different models of how politicians appeal to voters to win elections, and as usual, I have some tidbits and thoughts to share. Here come the theorums: 1.The median voter theorum. This theorum says that as long as no one abstains from voting, the politician who…

I didn’t know much about the issue of campaign finance until I listened to NPR’s Embedded podcast’s series of episodes on Senator Mitch McConnell (it’s a great series and a great podcast, by the way). I won’t spoil it much because Embedded tells the story really well, but the series…

So, I’ll just say it: this post isn’t going to be as fun as the one about the cool reforms of the Progressive Party. …

Everyone gets fired up about Republicans or Democrats, but my favorite political party from a historical perspective is the Progressives. …

During my college politics readings, I’ve found some helpful information about what the Republican and Democratic Parties stand for and the demographic and ideological constituencies that support them. You probably know some of this information already, but—like me—you may find that some of it is new to you. Today’s Republicans…

Two ways in which political advertisements, surveys, or other messaging can influence voters are priming and framing. Priming is “the process of shaping people’s perceptions of a particular issue, figure, or policy” by introducing some content (i.e. a photograph, video, or just spoken words) with a connotation to leads someone…

Sometime in the last several months, I seem to recall remarking that the Supreme Court is so much less political than the other branches of government. This seems to be… well… partially true. I would argue that the Supreme Court is less political than the other branches. It is bound…

In my college politics reading about the judiciary, I learned about three models that are used to describe how Supreme Court justices make decisions. Here they are: The legal model. According to this model, judges make decisions according to the case at hand and applicable laws, the intent of the…