"So polls mean nothing?...LOL"
The pollsters are laughing too. But they laugh at the gullible. Here is a sampling:
April 12, 2000
Professor claims polls manipulate public opinion
By Liz Bogut
Contrary to some experts' claims, President Bill Clinton might not closely rely on opinion polls to help make policy decisions. Instead, he uses them to change public opinion.
At least that's what one University professor has concluded.
mndaily.com
The Superpollsters: How They Measure and Manipulate Public Opinion in America (Paperback)
by David W. Moore
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Moore, director of the Survey Center at the University of New Hampshire, presents a highly readable history of opinion polling, describing the promise and problems created by pollsters' influence on the political process. With his provocative introduction, an account of professional pollsters' reaction to a presentation by Shere Hite on survey response, his book covers the major players and their role in the development of techniques such as "Hierarchical Values Map," the empty ballot, focus groups, and random digit dialing. Moore analyzes the impact of exit polling on election results, as well as the emergence of negative campaigns resulting from pollsters' negative influence on campaign tactics. He also examines the emergence of media polls and their role in events such as the confirmation of Justice Clarence Thomas. Highly recommended for academic and public libraries with politically active and aware patrons.
amazon.com
Autumn 1990
The Impact of Public Opinion Polls
Do they shape or measure opinions?
By Bill Kovach
At the AAPOR meeting 10 years ago I talked about a user's view of the polls. I talked then about my experience as an editor of The New York Times...
Advertising by candidatesfine-tuned on a daily basis, when necessary, by continuous tracking polls and combined with the ability to create targeted audiences about whom increasing amounts of information is knownoffers constantly expanding opportunities to manipulate public opinion on the basis of narrow, tightly focused, and highly emotional issues.
And into this volatile atmosphere the American press contributes what? Essentially a measure of the relative success of the manipulations. A study by Gary Orren at Harvard University found that almost 50 percent of the political stories which ran in three newspapers during a period of 22 days preceding the 1988 presidential election, cited poll results.
...
nieman.harvard.edu
Constructing Public Opinion:
How Politicians and the Media Misrepresent the Public
Featuring Justin Lewis
... ...
2. Polling your students
This exercise takes the form of a public opinion poll ? actually two polls. We?ve constructed two polls that can be accessed by clicking the links below. Each one asks questions about the same issues, but in each the questions are phrased differently in an attempt to elicit different responses. The point of this exercise is to provide students the actual experience of being polled, while at the same time showing them first-hand how volatile public opinion is ? how informed responses depend on good information, and how pollsters, media and politicians alike can manipulate opinion to achieve the results they desire.
The point of this exercise is to encourage students to begin thinking about polling before seeing this film, and the questions that follow it are designed to spark discussion about a number of specific themes treated by Professor Lewis.
,,,
mediaed.org
Public Opinion
Political Science 319
CRN 13788
Chambers 215
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 8:30 a.m. – 9:20 a.m.
Fall 2003
This course is designed to introduce students to the principles and dynamics of public opinion in the United States. A central theme will be the interaction between the American public and political elites. Do our political leaders manipulate public opinion, follow it, or both? To address this question, the course begins with an examination of central components of public opinion. In the second part of the course, we turn to the difficulties of measuring and interpreting public opinion data. The third section focuses in detail on the efforts of the presidents and other political elites to manipulate public opinion, as well as the constraints on those efforts.
(I suspect they ar refering to Clinton when they discuss President manipulating opinion. He certainly proved the master of the technique.)
davidson.edu
...In too many instances, it seems that polls are being used to manufacture or manipulate public opinion rather than to measure or reflect it.
This latest CBS poll is not a model of perfect polling, and it is legitimate to question the weights it applied to the raw results from the actual interviewing (see last page here), as was noted on The Corner last night. ,,,
It is typical to repeat a survey statistic when it reinforces one’s own opinion or hope and to attack a statistic (or polling generally) when the opposite is true. ... some of the questions in the CBS survey seem designed more to test messages and possible headlines than to gather a clean read of American sentiment,
...
conways.nationalreview.com |
