Polling and Public Opinion: A Canadian Perspective / Edition 2

by Peter Marshall Butler

Overview

The importance of polling public opinion is widely recognized today. Indeed, it is sometimes argued that in mass societies, polls have also become an important medium for communicating ideas and beliefs, especially since many people have become less involved in community organizations and interest groups that formerly connected them to events and issues. Polling and Public Opinion examines the impact that polls have on the thoughts and behaviour of the public.

Peter M. Butler considers the power of public opinion polls as an element of mass persuasion in media stories, advertising, and government policy. Using such controversial issues as free trade, health care, same-sex marriage, and national security, Butler argues that popular opinion on such hot-button topics as these can be guided and changed according to how polls are interpreted for and presented to the public. As well as analyzing the impact of polls on the public, Butler is concerned with demystifying the methods by which opinions are collected, showing that the techniques used to determine public opinion can be just as selective as those by which the results are disseminated.

Focusing on many of the vital topics of our time, Polling and Public Opinion is an in-depth look at the rise of one of the most important but least understood methods by which politicians and governments gauge the popular will.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802038197
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	05/12/2007
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.05(w) x 9.03(h) x 0.49(d)

About the Author

peter m. butler is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Dalhousie University, and has worked as a research consultant with national public opinion research firms.

Table of Contents

Foreword   Michael Adams     ix
Acknowledgments     xvii
Introduction     3
Polling and Understanding Public Opinion     7
The Social Basis of Public Opinion     7
The Role of Values in Opinion Formation     17
Understanding Variations in Opinions     31
Polls and 'Pollstars'     35
Summary     45
Methods of Collecting Opinions     46
Turning Opinions into Numbers     46
Populations and Sampling     58
Questionnaires and Interviews     67
Reporting the Numbers     78
Summary     82
Public Opinion and the Mass Media     83
News, Issues, and Opinions     83
Mass Communication and Consensus     94
Advertising and Public Opinion     100
Summary     106
Public Opinion Polls and Social Policy     108
Leadership and Opinion Polling     109
Confidence and Crisis in Health Care     118
Political Ideology and Public Policy     127
Summary     131
Change and Stability in Opinions     133
Some Sources of Opinion Change     134
ChangingOpinions about National Issues     149
Postmodernism and Public Opinion     164
Summary     167
Conclusion: Polling and Public Opinion     169
References     173
Index     187