Polls and the Awareness of Public Opinion

Polls and the Awareness of Public Opinion
Author: Leo Bogart
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
Total Pages: 308
Release:
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9781412831505

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How well can polls measure public opinion? Should government policies follow majority opinion? Do polls influence elections? Can there be polls under a dictatorship? Recent elections throughout the world have made these issues ever more crucial. "Polls and the Awareness of Public Opinion, "initially published under the title "Silent Politics, "is the first book to look upon polls and the awareness of poll results as forces that influence public opinion. It is a penetrating assessment of the uses of polls, their misuses, and the absurdities carried out in their name. Bogart argues that predictions based on polls can be misleading since they reflect a transient stage in a public opinion that is constantly and often rapidly changing.

Polling UnPacked

Polling UnPacked
Author: Mark Pack
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2022-05-13
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1789145686

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From a political-polling expert, an eye-opening—and hilarious—look at the origins of polls and how they have been used and abused ever since. Opinion polls dominate media coverage of politics, especially elections. But how do the polls work? How do we tell the good from the bad? And in light of recent polling disasters, can we trust them at all? Polling UnPacked gives us the full story, from the first rudimentary polls in the nineteenth century, through attempts by politicians to ban polling in the twentieth century, to the very latest techniques and controversies from the last few years. Equal parts enlightening and hilarious, the book requires no prior knowledge of polling or statistics to understand. But even hardened pollsters will find much to enjoy, from how polling has been used to help plan military invasions to why an exhausted interviewer was accidentally instrumental in inventing exit polls. Written by a former political pollster and the creator of Britain’s foremost polling-intention database, Polling UnPacked reveals which opinion polls to trust, which to ignore, and which, frankly, to laugh at. It will change the way we see political coverage forever.

Polls and Politics

Polls and Politics
Author: Michael A. Genovese
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2012-02-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0791485099

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This hard-hitting and engaging examination of polls and American politics asks an essential question: do polls contribute to the vitality of our democracy or are they undermining the health of our political system? Leading scholars address several key issues such as how various types of polls affect democracy, the meaning attributed to polling data by citizens and the media, the use of polls by presidents, and how political elites respond—or do not respond—to public polls. The contributors assert that while polls tread a fine line between informing and manipulating the public, they remain valuable so long as a robust democracy obliges its political leaders to respond to the expressed will of the people.

Political Polling

Political Polling
Author: Jeffrey M. Stonecash
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Total Pages: 189
Release: 2008-07-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1461722357

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Information is crucial for candidates in political campaigns. This book, written by someone who has polled for 23 years, first focuses on the process of acquiring information during a campaign through polling. The book describes how to write questions, draw samples of voters, and conduct calling. The second major concern of the book is how to analyze results, and then interpret and present results in a way that will contribute to forming a strategy for a campaign. The book deals with the issues of biased questions and results, and why it is of no value to candidates to engage in such practices.

Numbered Voices

Numbered Voices
Author: Susan Herbst
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 244
Release: 1995-08-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780226327433

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Quantifying the American mood through opinion polls appears to be an unbiased means for finding out what people want. But in Numbered Voices, Susan Herbst demonstrates that the way public opinion is measured affects the use that voters, legislators, and journalists make of it. Exploring the history of public opinion in the United States from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day, Herbst shows how numbers served both instrumental and symbolic functions, not only conveying neutral information but creating a basis authority. Addressing how the quantification of public opinion has affected contemporary politics and the democratic process, Herbst asks difficult but fundamental questions about the workings of American politics. "An original and thought-provoking analysis of why we have polls, what they accomplish, and how they affect the current political scene. Herbst's scholarship is impeccable, her writing is clear and crisp, and her findings are original. . . . Every reader will benefit by carefully weighing the issues she raises and the conclusions she draws."—Doris A. Graber, Political Science Quarterly "An intelligent, theoretically rich, and historically broad account of public opinion over several millennia. . . . The historical accounts are interesting and her interpretations are thought-provoking."—Paul Brace, Journal of American History

Political Polling in the Digital Age

Political Polling in the Digital Age
Author: Kirby Goidel
Publisher: LSU Press
Total Pages: 157
Release: 2011-05-02
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0807137847

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The 2008 presidential election provided a "perfect storm" for pollsters. A significant portion of the population had exchanged their landlines for cellphones, which made them harder to survey. Additionally, a potential Bradley effect -- in which white voters misrepresent their intentions of voting for or against a black candidate -- skewed predictions, and aggressive voter registration and mobilization campaigns by Barack Obama combined to challenge conventional understandings about how to measure and report public preferences. In the wake of these significant changes, Political Polling in the Digital Age, edited by Kirby Goidel, offers timely and insightful interpretations of the impact these trends will have on polling. In this groundbreaking collection, contributors place recent developments in public-opinion polling into a broader historical context, examine how to construct accurate meanings from public-opinion surveys, and analyze the future of public-opinion polling. Notable contributors include Mark Blumenthal, editor and publisher of Pollster.com; Anna Greenberg, a leading Democratic pollster; and Scott Keeter, director of survey research for the Pew Research Center. In an era of increasingly personalized and interactive communications, accurate political polling is more difficult and also more important. Political Polling in the Digital Age presents fresh perspectives and relevant tactics that demystify the variable world of opinion taking.

Media Polls in American Politics

Media Polls in American Politics
Author: Thomas E. Mann
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Total Pages: 183
Release: 2010-12-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0815718470

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Public opinion pools have become staples of contemporary political reporting, and most national news organizations have sophisticated in-house polling operations. The increased number and quality of polls conducted and reported by the press give the public a chance to help see the agendas of campaigns and define the meaning of elections. Yet competition and the need for fast responses to events often lead news organizations to misuse polls in a way that diminishes rather than enhances democracy. Polls can shape public opinion as well as describe it; they can set the news agenda and influence the coverage of political events in ways hostile to a constructive dialogue between citizens and their leaders. In this volume, media specialist and well-known reporters provide a comprehensive survey of the problems and possibilities of polling by media organizations in the 1990s and beyond. Thomas Mann and Gary Orren analyze the strengths and weaknesses of media polls and their impact on American politics. Everett Carll Ladd and John Benson discuss the extraordinary growth of polling in news organizations for the past two decades. Kathleen Frankovic addresses the tension between the needs of news organizations for quick results and the need to preserve the standards of survey research. Henry Brady and Gary Orren examine the most serious methodological problems with news media polls. Michael Kagay explores the sources of well-publicized variability in poll findings. Michael Traugott considers the complicated question of how polls influence the public and whether their effects are benign or harmful. Finally, E. J. Dionne, Jr. examines media organizations' obsession with polls and the impact polls have on reporters. The authors offer recommendations for improving the conduct and use of media polls so that citizens can make better informed and enlightened decisions about the public agenda.

Strength in Numbers: How Polls Work and Why We Need Them

Strength in Numbers: How Polls Work and Why We Need Them
Author: G. Elliott Morris
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 178
Release: 2022-07-12
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 039386698X

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An insightful exploration of political polling and a bold defense of its crucial role in a modern democracy. Public opinion polling is the ultimate democratic process; it gives every person an equal voice in letting elected leaders know what they need and want. But in the eyes of the public, polls today are tarnished. Recent election forecasts have routinely missed the mark and media coverage of polls has focused solely on their ability to predict winners and losers. Polls deserve better. In Strength in Numbers, data journalist G. Elliott Morris argues that the larger purpose of political polls is to improve democracy, not just predict elections. Whether used by interest groups, the press, or politicians, polling serves as a pipeline from the governed to the government, giving citizens influence they would otherwise lack. No one who believes in democracy can afford to give up on polls; they should commit, instead, to understanding them better. In a vibrant history of polling, Morris takes readers from the first semblance of data-gathering in the ancient world through to the development of modern-day scientific polling. He explains how the internet and “big data” have solved many challenges in polling—and created others. He covers the rise of polling aggregation and methods of election forecasting, reveals how data can be distorted and misrepresented, and demystifies the real uncertainty of polling. Candidly acknowledging where polls have gone wrong in the past, Morris charts a path for the industry’s future where it can truly work for the people. Persuasively argued and deeply researched, Strength in Numbers is an essential guide to understanding and embracing one of the most important and overlooked democratic institutions in the United States.

Polls, Their Use and Misuse in Politics

Polls, Their Use and Misuse in Politics
Author: Charles W. Roll
Publisher:
Total Pages: 234
Release: 1980
Genre: History
ISBN:

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The book describes Cantril's experience of interpreting what the polls reported and analyzing the meaning of the fundamental structures of attitudes and prejudice and the underlying depths of public opinion. In addition to throwing light on the techniques of public opinion polls by which the public is being constantly assayed, the authors warn, instruct and strike a moral and social concern in a timely fashion.

Polls, Television, and the New Politics

Polls, Television, and the New Politics
Author: Harold Mendelsohn
Publisher: Scranton : Chandler Publishing Company
Total Pages: 352
Release: 1970
Genre: History
ISBN:

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