A Journalist's Guide to Public Opinion Polls

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:
Foreword by Walter Mears 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

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.

Review :
?Despite journalists' trust in numbers as "solid, reliable, and real," too few understand how the polls that yield those numbers are run or evaluated. In addressing this problem, Gawiser and Witt offer insight after insight into the value, the technique, the pitfalls, and the frequent sins to be found in the polling world. While their text would no doubt help the reader set up a public-opinion survey, that is not its purpose. The book aims to give journalists and students the tools they need to analyze and evaluate polls, and this to report on (or reject) them with greater understanding. Gawiser and Witt have done journalism--and journalism education--a worthy service.?-Journalism Educator ?This book tours the techniques and pitfalls of public opinion polls. The clarity of Gawiser and Witt's writing makes this title very accessible. Highly recommended for public and undergraduate collections in political science, survey research, and journalism.?-Choice "This book tours the techniques and pitfalls of public opinion polls. The clarity of Gawiser and Witt's writing makes this title very accessible. Highly recommended for public and undergraduate collections in political science, survey research, and journalism."-Choice "Despite journalists' trust in numbers as "solid, reliable, and real," too few understand how the polls that yield those numbers are run or evaluated. In addressing this problem, Gawiser and Witt offer insight after insight into the value, the technique, the pitfalls, and the frequent sins to be found in the polling world. While their text would no doubt help the reader set up a public-opinion survey, that is not its purpose. The book aims to give journalists and students the tools they need to analyze and evaluate polls, and this to report on (or reject) them with greater understanding. Gawiser and Witt have done journalism--and journalism education--a worthy service."-Journalism Educator