A Journalist's Guide to Public Opinion Polls / Edition 1

by Sheldon R. Gawiser, G. Evans Witt

Overview

This straightforward text provides jourbanalists, both professional and student, with an explanation of the realities of an increasingly important facet of today's precision jourbanalism—public opinion polling. The work aims to provide the skills necessary for evaluating and interpreting survey results accurately. After a brief review of the historical relationship between the press and public opinion, the authors examine the polling environment today. Then, step-by-step, they take the reader through the basics of jourbanalistic uses of public opinion surveys and the questions to be asked by the jourbanalist in evaluating a survey: who did the poll; who sponsored the poll; what were the survey questions and how were they worded; what is the sampling error; how to report poll results; how to put survey figures in context; and how to make and evaluate projections based upon polls. In addition, the text offers a review of statistical methods for the jourbanalist and a 20 question checklist.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275949891
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	10/30/1994
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.41(d)

About the Author

SHELDON R. GAWISER is senior poll analyst for NBC News and president of the National Council on Public Polls. He is president of Gawiser Associates, Inc. of Fairfield, Connecticut, consultants in information collection and management.

G. EVANS WITT is assistant bureau chief of the Associated Press in Washington, D.C. He previously served as director of AP/NBC News polling.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Walter Mears
Acknowledgments
The Opinion Triangle
The Press and Public Opinion: Always Linked
A Brief History of Polls
The Emergence of Precision Jourbanalism
The Polling Environment Today
The Poll: Who Did?
The Poll: Who Sponsored It?
The Poll: Sampling
The Poll: The Questions
The Poll: Timing Is Everything
The Poll: Sampling Error
The Poll: Other Sources of Error
Pseudo-Polls and SLOPS
Reporting Polls: The Basics
Reporting Polls: Numbers in Context
Reporting Polls: Political Surveys
Reporting Polls: Exit Polls and Projections
The Future
Appendix A: The World's Shortest Course in Statistics
Appendix B: Twenty Questions
Bibliography
Index