News corporations, like any business, want to make profit. The best way to do that is to ensure you have a large viewing audience that attracts advertisers to sell on their network.

The correct answer is “opinion leader.” Classic examples would be Piers Morgan, Sean Hannity, or anyone similar. Both of these men are widely known individuals who have quite a large effect on public opinion on political matters. Although teacher or community leader may have been tempting, those are technically examples of (possible) opinion leaders—but are not individually the definition.

In the middle and late 1800s, the middle class was fed up with "yellow journalism" and started buying into the social reform goals of the Progressive era. This gave rise to a market for magazines that would devote their time to issues of public policy with solid, fact-based reporting.

Coverage of political candidates on the "big three" networks has been broken up into shorter pieces and as a result is much less in-depth. The average sound bite dropped from 42 seconds in 1968 to 7.3 seconds in 2000. As a result, politicians often turn to cable TV, early morning news shows, prime time "news magazine shows," and other sources to get more extensive coverage.

In strong contrast to many other countries, American newspapers are primarily oriented to the local market and the local audience, and there is typically more local than national news inside. There are a few widely read national newspapers, such as the New York Times and the Washington Post, but these are the exception rather than the norm.

The media plays the role of gatekeeper because it can influence what subjects become national political issues and for how long. As scorekeepers, the national media helps keep track of the progress of various candidates in elections. As watchdogs, the media pays close attention to the politicians that they are interested in, and will expose corruption (as in the Watergate Scandal).

Salient is defined as the most noticeable or important. A salient issue is one that is topmost on people's mind. An example would be the economy during times of recession.

Since its invention, television has become the easiest accessible and most prevalent source of information. Additionally, 24 hour news networks provide the easiest means for people to acquire political information.

The most important impact of television is the agenda setting. News networks can choose what stories get the top of the hour and how much time to spend on them.

As early as 5 years old, young people start to assimilate and have affective feelings on political subjects provided by their interactions with their parents and family. This process continues until they form their own political worldview.