Does the media play a significant role in shaping the beliefs and attitudes of the American people toward political choices and/or opinions about...

The unfortunate answer is: "Yes". This is not personal opinion; this is actually a conclusion drawn from the following sources

• Well-known political strategies


• Social learning theories


• Theories of motivation 

The majority of voters are people who are staunch supporters of their political parties. For this reason, the media works hard to appeal to the senses of those who still do not know for whom to vote. The second goal is to convert those who are already committed to a political party and entice them to vote for the rival party.

To achieve any of those goals, the amount of work required to influence people is colossal. Needless to say, that is perfectly OK for those who work the campaigns of specific candidates. With millions of dollars funding these campaigns, there is no limit as to what these promoters can afford to do. 

Well-Known Strategies

Reuters posted strategies used by public relations agents to run and maintain the influence of their political candidates in the media. Since millions of Americans use all forms of media, such as TV, radio, Internet, magazines and newspapers, these public relations experts make sure to use every venue to expose their candidates and present them as the ideal ones.

Here are some of the strategies.

1. Strategically-placed posters- Notice how, during political rallies, the public always gets to read some really creative, home-made poster supporting a candidate. Half of those posters are not hand-made by the person holding it.  Seven out of 10 times, they are pre-made by the campaign headquarters and given to people to strategically show them on camera.


2. Press conferences- Whether the candidate is giving any new information or not, a press conference makes  it looks like a very serious move that implies that such candidate has “something” to say…on TV, of course.


3. Twitter, Facebook, Periscope, and Instagram accounts- Knowing that the bulk of the voting population uses social media, political campaigns create pages and accounts that are consistently keeping the public alerted, informed, or motivated to participate in conversations, share pictures, and even ask questions to the candidate.  Whether it is the candidate actually responding or not, it is instant access to the candidate, nevertheless.


4. Candid appearances on TV talk shows- from the President of the United States, to the candidates of the upcoming election, everyone loves to visit “hip” late night talks shows,  as well as early-bird, homely morning shows.


5. Constant presence on the news. Candidates will send out all sorts of information, whether new, old, good, bad, relevant, or irrelevant, to the newspapers. The important thing is to remain relevant and in view of the public.

Having recognized the most commonly employed strategies to influence people, let’s discuss the bases that argue the manner in which these methodologies may actually work and do their job.

Social learning theory

According to Albert Bandura, our primary tendency, as Homo sapiens, is to observe and analyze the behaviors of our peers. Then, we choose the behaviors that best suit our social needs. This automated tendency is driven entirely by motivation. 

The implication of this is that, with the proper motivation, people would be more willing to change their views and change political parties, or political allegiances. We will always want to imitate those who appear to be "in the know". 

This being said, social media uses this tendency of imitating others to create trends, catchy tunes, mottoes and logos that will attract the most vulnerable first, and convert the less vulnerable later.

Theories of motivation

Theories of motivation, as those proposed by Howard Gardner (1989) of "Multiple Intelligences" fame, state that whatever brings us pleasure or satisfaction will move us to do things first. This includes adopting new behaviors, such as changing physical appearance, lifestyles...and political preferences.  

Again, it takes a lot of creativity, money, time, and effort to develop a campaign that is catchy enough, powerful enough, and memorable enough to inspire voters to change political views. Yet, it happens a lot. Evidence of this can be seen in how we no longer have a majority of voters consistently electing the same political party for terms on end. In the last 20 years we have seen both parties coming in and out of the White House. Something is moving people to change their votes every four years rather than keeping it consistent. 

  Conclusion

It is clear that public relations agents work extremely hard to influence their candidate in the media. People use the media.  People also tend to follow one another when they feel motivated enough to do so. One of these motivators may be switching political preferences and adhering to new ones.  The shift in our presidential elections from one term to another, over the last decades, shows that the media factor is definitely influential. Moreover, it is a formula that aims to keep a candidate always relevant and ever-present. These are the reasons why the media definitely can help shape and mold society and their view of a political candidate.

What mark did the second cat have on his chest?

At first, the mark on the cat is only a white patch. Later, however, the narrator thinks it has changed shape to appear like the gallows.

The change in the cat's marking likely foreshadows the narrator's fate. At the beginning of the tale, he says it is the last night of his life because he is being put to death the next day for murdering his wife. A gallows is a construct where a person...

At first, the mark on the cat is only a white patch. Later, however, the narrator thinks it has changed shape to appear like the gallows.

The change in the cat's marking likely foreshadows the narrator's fate. At the beginning of the tale, he says it is the last night of his life because he is being put to death the next day for murdering his wife. A gallows is a construct where a person is hanged. It usually includes a platform, two upright posts, and a beam connecting them from which the person is hanged. 

The cat with the mark of the gallows is what ultimately leads the police to find the narrator's murdered wife. When the police are preparing to leave the basement where she is buried, the cat meows in response to the man knocking on the wall. When the police tear down the wall, they find the body of his murdered wife with the cat on top of her. The narrator is taken into custody and ultimately sentenced to death. 

What is meant by the quotation "what to him / Are Plato and the swing of Pleiades?" in "The Man with a Hoe" by Edwin Markham?

In this complex stanza, points are being made in reference to a Biblical allusion to Psalm 8:5: "You have made [humans] a little lower than the Angels and crowned [humans] with glory and honor" (Psalm 8:5). To describe laborers—as seen by him in the oil painting "L'homme à la houe" (1863) by Jean-François Millet—Edwin Markham enlarges the Biblical concept of "a little lower," making it a great "gulf" of separation between the laborer and the angels (seraphim). He assigns "Time's tragedy" to the laborer's "aching stoop." Dramatizing his point for the learned (non-laborers) who are reading his poem, he suggests that such stooped, lowly, "profaned and disinherited" laborers have no strength to consider the problems Plato poses or the theories he presents; they have no opportunity to unbend and turn their eyes skyward to contemplate the meaning of the movement of the starry Pleiades. 

What gulfs between him and the seraphim!
Slave of the wheel of labor, what to him
Are Plato and the swing of the Pleiades?

Markham goes on to suggest in the lines following "Pleiades" that the "dread shape" of the laborer, through whom "the suffering ages look," does not have the time, strength, or ability to contemplate the mundane, earthly pleasures of the "peaks of song, / The rift of dawn, the reddening of the rose." Markham makes the point that grueling labor reduces humans to being far lower than their God-given state, reduces them to a state that is deadened to higher thought and contemplation, to a state that is as stooped as their physical state:  

Time's tragedy is in that aching stoop;
Through this dread shape humanity betrayed,
Plundered, profaned and disinherited.

The larger point that these lines are part of, "what to him / Are Plato and the swing of the Pleiades?" is that "this dread shape humanity betrayed"—plundered of rightful thought, profaned of rightful place, disinherited of the the wonders of life—cries out in protest to the "Powers" that created life. His cries, which are silenced along with his contemplation of Plato and his wonder at how the summer and winter "swing" of the rising and setting of the Pleiades cluster, are a prophecy of retribution for those humans who lower other humans in this way: "Cries protest to the Powers that made the world, / A protest that is also prophecy."

Imagine that it is 1952. How would you write a letter to your congressman explaining why you think the Marshall Plan is a wise investment or why...

To write an effective letter, try to list the economic and political benefits of the Marshall Plan to your congressman. Above all, try to explain how his support of the Marshall Plan will cement his place in American history as a proponent of European stability and American prosperity.

This second tactic would be more of a psychological approach; you're essentially highlighting what your congressman's support will mean for his own political advancement and legacy. Never underestimate the effectiveness of such an approach!

Describe how your congressman can use his support for the Marshall Plan to invigorate his own re-election campaign. Highlight his support for the expansion of American political influence through monetary/ capital investment and how this investment protects Europe against communist hegemony (dominance or rule). Remember that, in the 1950s, public suspicion against communism was at an all-time high. Senator Joe McCarthy capitalized on national fears about communism when he asserted that communists had taken over prominent positions in the country. Read about McCarthyism and the fear of communist rule after the post-war years.

If you like, you may be able to use some of the material from the link above in your letter.

Below are some of the economic and political benefits of the Marshall Plan (ones you will want to include in your letter).

You can state that the Marshall Plan is an effective tool in the Cold War conflict between the United States and Soviet Russia. Instead of committing the blood of soldiers to physical combat, the United States will be using monetary investment to protect Europe against communist hegemony and Soviet influence.

The Marshall Plan increases European productivity by easing production gridlock and curbing inflation. This will support Europe's increasing economic independence and bolster its political and social stability. Europe will also have the resources to strengthen its military defenses against Soviet encroachment. 

You can also explain how the Marshall Plan is an effective deterrent against an extreme form of nationalism (the exact kind that fostered Nazi-fascism and subjected entire populations of Jews, Christians, gypsies, the disabled, and homosexuals to the horrors of the Holocaust during World War Two). The Marshall Plan works to promote economic prosperity within an integrated Europe.

As a supporter of the Marshall Plan, you can argue that a strong European Union may just prevent future American involvement in armed conflicts. For example, if Europe is politically and economically powerful, it will cease to look towards the Soviet model for relief. Essentially, any economic prosperity built on the principles of capitalism will prevent Europe from capitulating towards failed communist theories about economic growth.

Since you do not state how long your letter needs to be, I leave you with some good links below to peruse (in case you need more information).

2. What were the strengths and weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation?

There were strengths and weaknesses with the plan of government created by the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation did a good job in organizing western lands and in selling them. The Land Ordinance of 1785 accomplished this. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 also established the process a territory would follow to eventually become a state. The plan of government created by the Articles of Confederation helped get the United States through the difficult...

There were strengths and weaknesses with the plan of government created by the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation did a good job in organizing western lands and in selling them. The Land Ordinance of 1785 accomplished this. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 also established the process a territory would follow to eventually become a state. The plan of government created by the Articles of Confederation helped get the United States through the difficult early years of the United States becoming a country.

There were problems with the plan of government created by the Articles of Confederation. The federal government that was created was a weak one. It could not levy taxes or force people to join the military. As a result, the new government faced significant financial problems. It also made it difficult for the government to respond to countries, such as Spain and Great Britain, who interfered with trade and encouraged the Native Americans to attack the United States. It also was difficult to pass a law or change the Articles of Confederation. Nine states needed to vote for a proposed law, and thirteen states needed to agree to change the Articles of Confederation. Finally, since there were no courts, states had no place to resolve disputes with each other.

The plan of government created by the Articles of Confederation had strengths and weaknesses.

Why did the 13 colonies revolt?

There were several reasons why the colonists revolted against Great Britain. The three most important factors were taxes, control, and bloodshed.

TaxesThe British Parliament passed two tax laws that upset the colonists. Both the Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts violated the rights of the colonists, in their opinion. They believed that they needed to have representatives in Parliament who could speak about and vote on proposed tax laws. The colonists didn’t have representatives...

There were several reasons why the colonists revolted against Great Britain. The three most important factors were taxes, control, and bloodshed.

Taxes
The British Parliament passed two tax laws that upset the colonists. Both the Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts violated the rights of the colonists, in their opinion. They believed that they needed to have representatives in Parliament who could speak about and vote on proposed tax laws. The colonists didn’t have representatives in Parliament. As a result, the colonists believed their rights were being violated.

Control
When Parliament passed the Proclamation of 1763, the colonists weren’t allowed to go to the lands that Great Britain gained from France in the French and Indian War. The colonists weren’t happy about this. To make matters worse, the colonists had to provide housing and supplies for the British soldiers that were enforcing this unpopular law.

Bloodshed
At the Boston Massacre, five colonists were killed. For some people, this was an important turning point in the relationship with Great Britain. After the Boston Tea Party, the British passed the Intolerable Acts, which the colonists refused to obey. When the British moved their troops to Lexington and Concord in April 1775, soldiers on both sides were killed. For many people, it was only a matter of time before the colonists would declare their independence from Great Britain. With the publication of Common Sense, a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine explaining why the colonists should declare their independence from Great Britain, more people were convinced that independence was justified.

There were many reasons why the colonists rebelled against Great Britain.

In the passage given, show how Daniel Defoe does not manage to make the readers sympathize with Moll. Discuss Moll's thoughts and behavior in the...

Moll is a very straight-forward narrator. She avoids hyperbole (exaggeration) when describing scenes in her life, instead simply stating the truth of the matter. Having discovered that she is half-sister to her husband, she does not wail about the horror of the situation (it is pretty horrible!). Instead, she bluntly states that she lived a lie, in "incest and whoredom." She actually calls herself a whore. Rather than eliciting sympathy from the audience, her announcement...

Moll is a very straight-forward narrator. She avoids hyperbole (exaggeration) when describing scenes in her life, instead simply stating the truth of the matter. Having discovered that she is half-sister to her husband, she does not wail about the horror of the situation (it is pretty horrible!). Instead, she bluntly states that she lived a lie, in "incest and whoredom." She actually calls herself a whore. Rather than eliciting sympathy from the audience, her announcement is designed to either shock or create respect, for the honesty of it. She also equates her husband's bad behaviors on the same level as hers—in other words, she does not make herself a victim. Moll says: "I was as impatient of bearing his carriage, as the carriage was unreasonable and unjust." She does not ask for our pity; instead, she condemns her own behavior.

Despite her attitude, we have to see that Moll actually is a victim. As a woman, she has no freedom. She has discovered a horrible truth about her marriage—discovered, actually, that they are not legally married due to incest—and wishes to leave her husband without burdening him with that unpleasant knowledge. However, she cannot. He must approve her leaving, so she is stuck. This passage highlights Moll's strength of character and her resiliency. She is not devastated by the news, but wishes to move on with life. However, she has no actual power to do so because of the the society in which she lives.