Bloomsbury Home
A Journalist's Guide to Public Opinion Polls
This product is usually dispatched within 1 week
- Delivery and returns info
-
Free CA delivery on orders $40 or over
Description
This straightforward text provides journalists, both professional and student, with an explanation of the realities of an increasingly important facet of today's precision journalism--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 journalistic uses of public opinion surveys and the questions to be asked by the journalist 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 journalist and a 20 question checklist.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
The Opinion Triangle
The Press and Public Opinion: Always Linked
A Brief History of Polls
The Emergence of Precision Journalism
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
Product details
| Published | Oct 21 1994 |
|---|---|
| Format | Hardback |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 192 |
| ISBN | 9780275947224 |
| Imprint | Praeger |
| Dimensions | 210 x 140 mm |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
Related Titles
