Learn more about public opinion polling by visiting the website, the National Council on Public Polls. Click the title above. What kinds of opinions do you find interesting on this site? How does Public Opinion shape how we live? Or does it? What impact do Public Opinion Polls have on society.
Google "understanding public opinions or types of opinions." What kinds of results do you come up wiht? How about blogs?
Everyone has a opinion nowadays, what's yours? Post your results including a website you find interesting in your research.
43 comments:
Going to the site "National Council on Public Polls" I found information on polling the public, with many resource links.
This site was devoted to an opinion poll about the publics concern for global warming, and because of the nature of the language, I could tell the pollsters were trying to persuade or confirm the public’s belief that global warming was uppermost in the public’s interest and concern.
I believe Public Opinion shape how we live and that depends on how they are used. They are not always used for the good, they can easily be used to manipulate. I think that because, using the words, Public Opinion, gives people the feeling of legitimacy, they feel that this information can be trusted.
I have a deep seeded distrust of public opinion polls; I have seen the government use them to sway the country on issues as important as the Iraq war. I can see now, looking back, how the information was flawed and perhaps full of loaded language to get their point viewed positively as the general publics.
The impact can be as catastrophic as the Iraq war. Many people were posing false information, inferences and just plain lies to get the desired outcome.
http://www.publicopinionpros.com/features/2007/jun/petek_ns.asp
Upon review of “Understanding public opinions” took me to sites about opinion polls and these sites were pretty complicated and statistical and I did not find them helpful.
http://www.mackinac.org/article.aspx?ID=8011
When I went to “Types of Opinions”, I found information on legal briefs.
http://www.uscourts.gov/judbus2006/tables/s3.pdf
I found a blog site when I searched under public opinion that discussed the surge in favor of Gays and Lesbians, which is good for me, because I may be able to use this public opinion to support my position.
http://www.mackinac.org/article.aspx?ID=8011
My opinion of the internet is that, it is awesome. When I went to high school the most accurate source I had was the Encyclopedia Britannica. I love to surf the “net” you can shop, research, post, read and or listen to music and even movies. With the recent technology you can go wireless and Bluetooth. You can go where other men have gone before.
After I visited "the National Council on Public Polls" I found that opinion types of polls were interesting to me.
I believe that public opinion shapes the way we live because people think that these polls always have the best interest in mind. The polls are considered to be a persuasive attention grabber for Americans. He reason is because we feel that we are making a difference by answering the polls. This is not always true because those polls results can be used in a negative way and misleading.
Also public opinion polls have a massive impact on our society because they are used to gather data to see what citizens think. I see these types of polls especially during presidentual election time come around because this is how the candidates build up momentum and to see how well they are accepted by Americans.
Moreover, when I googled understanding public opinions these are my findings:
Public Opinion Polls and Digital Preservation: An Application of ...These polls provide an incredibly rich resource for understanding New Jersey and its ... Suffice it to say, the archive of Eagleton public opinion polls was ...
www.dlib.org/dlib/november03/jantz/11jantz.html -
Types of opinions results:
The two types of patriots - OpinionsPolicy on posting: The Arizona Daily Wildcat would like to offer readers an opportunity to voice their opinions and engage in community conversation. ...
wildcat.arizona.edu/news/2007/03/09/Opinions/The-Two.Types.Of.Patriots-2770480.shtml
In addition for blogs here are my findings:
Blog advertising makes opinions - Examples of 3.0 ad types for opinion makers Blog advertising makes opinions ... Examples of 3.0 ad types. Send this page to somebody • Print this page ...
web.blogads.com/Documents/Examples_of_3.0_ad_types/ - Similar pages
I enjoyed doing this blogs assignment because it helped me see how much public opinion matters in some cases.
Hi Sandye.
Yes, I too believe that most public opinion polls are trying to sway you to their side. I’m leery about company surveys that employees take. I always have second thought about them because it's like big brother's watching.
CLASS, after reading your comments, I'm impressed with what your results found. Keep up the good work.
When I opened the "National Council On Public Opinion Polls" site, I was in a flurry as to where to begin.
I went to the "Des Moines Register" page as this is a newspaper generated in Des Moines, Iowa, and I am from Iowa.
I decided to read an article about one of the local residents, Ada Mae Lewis, a microbiologist and gardener. She lives in Ames, Iowa and has created a spectacular water garden at her home. She is featured in today's paper in the botanical section. Inititally, I was drawn to the article due to the fact that I am familiar with this part of the world, and gardening.
I ask myself if this is how I come to make the bigger decisions? Am I only comfortable with expressing what the larger voice or public feels or admits? Do I shy away from the larger, more difficult issues in the world?
In my searching around, I found a site: www.annenbergmedia.org/channel/
democracy in america. This site is user-friendly, offering a defintion for "public opinion" , and it takes the viewer through the steps of how to create one's own poll. I will re-visit this site to gain furhter knowledge about "public opinion" in general.
In my opinion, I find it useful to have knowledge about what the masses are thinking and discussing to a certain extent. I do believe that oftentimes the media, in an effort to have us believe what we are fed, has sly ways of swaying our opinions, especially when it comes to issues of war and money.
Myself, I want to be able to voice my beliefs, and vote the way I want to vote based on integrity, and thorough understanding of the issue at hand. Hopefully, I can find the places, such as this blog, to open up the discussion for honest dialogue.
Hi Alestri,
It is interesting to wonder if your opinion really counts, especially after this last election. But as we are doing now, you can create your own blog site and voice your opinion about what you find important. Be well. sandye
After visitingthe "National Council on Public Polls",I discovered the Public Opinion polls on Iraq war more interesting because it reflects how poeple think,feel,react in different ways when it come to issues or topics.
Opinion polls influence publics' understanding about an issue,as the public would aways percieve Opinion polls to be acurate and reliable source for data information.Though, polls may yeild misleading results when data is controled or manipulated for aparticular interest.
Another site I reviewed for more helpful hints was: htpp://www.mountainrunner.us/2006/09/new-poll-on-pen.html.In fcat the impact of public opinion polls could be felt as one navigate in these sites.It became clear to me that polls are valuable instrument which not only shows how people think or feel but could also be used in measuring,interpreting,results and variables in data information.
Before I read the article, I don't even know what is NCPP stand for and don't know the public polls is so influence on our American society, until I read the article of The National Council on Public Polls. It's make me have more thought about on this topic
I did so many times on public polls but I never think of who paid fot the poll? when was the poll done? what other kinds of factors can skew poll results?...... Also, my thought from this article is the result from the public polls will not represented the real result. For example, "Which team is going to win the Championship in NBA", "San Antonio Spurs or Cleveland Cavaliers" let says the public polls result is 85% go for Cleveland Cavaliers, 10% go for San Antonio Spurs and 5% is undecided. Then the real result come up is San Antonio win the 2007 Championship.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_opinion_poll. is the website that tell you more information about Opinion Polls, such as History of Opinion Polls, References, Sampling error... In those information, I am just surprised when it said the first example of poll is as early as 1824, it's unexpectable
Class I'm sorry for some errors in my posting.I clicked menue for "publish your comment" by mistake.
Anyway,I want to respond to Sandye and Sayso's comments.I think they are right by stating that public opinion polls are to sway people to their side.The trend has became a common tool used by our media system.Often times,the target is not really to use the results to show facts,but is just to persuade you.So,polls are not always standard measurement of facts.
Hello magnus Duru:
I agree with you when you said "It became clear to me that polls are valuable instrument which not only shows how people think or feel but could also be used in measuring,interpreting,results and variables in data information" It's definitely true the polls are not only valuable but also have a good other side by different ways.
Hello Hip Bong Lee:
I am glad that u found more about the National Council on Public Polls. This site was intresting and informative because it shed light on why these opinion polls are used.
I hope to see you in class.I enjoyed working with you during peer review for essay I wish you much success.
Looking on the website I found it to be full of many different interesting polls. I linked on the ABC site and found a poll stating the majority believes that Alberto Gonzalez should be fired for the way he handled the dismissals of several U.S attorneys. I believe this poll shows how public opinion does indeed shape how we live. It does this by making those involved in the polls express their opinion by voting on what they believe. Some topics may be more controversial than others. The more controversial a topic, the more one tends to get involved and can lead into interesting poll figures. The way opinion polls can affect society is they can get coverage everywhere from the media, radio, newspaper, signs, and not to mention, they always seem to get scripted in your daily conversations. When I goggled the search I found a website “Understanding attitudes about careers” http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED413431&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=eric_accno&accno=ED413431. I found this to be an interesting survey showing that the majority polled felt that their kids did not need vocational work experience when going from college to a job. As you can imagine, there were many opinions expressed in this poll. There is no right or wrong answers in a poll; they just express ones opinions and/or beliefs. For example, I believe the New York Yankees are the greatest franchise in Major League Baseball history. The Yankees have twenty six championships and the most retired numbers in MLB. You can visit http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=nyy for more information. This website will show you those who have the same belief and those who disagree.
Hello I just want to repost my posting. I was going to put them into paragraph forms from Word when my daughter grabbed my mouse and clicked submit by mistake.
Looking on the website I found it to be full of many different interesting polls. I linked on the ABC site and found a poll stating the majority believes that Alberto Gonzalez should be fired for the way he handled the dismissals of several U.S attorneys. I believe this poll shows how public opinion does indeed shape how we live. It does this by making those involved in the polls express their opinion by voting on what they believe.
Some topics may be more controversial than others. The more controversial a topic, the more one tends to get involved and can lead into interesting poll figures. The way opinion polls can affect society is they can get coverage everywhere from the media, radio, newspaper, signs, and not to mention, they always seem to get scripted in your daily conversations.
When I goggled the search I found a website “Understanding attitudes about careers” http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED413431&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=eric_accno&accno=ED413431. I found this to be an interesting survey showing that the majority polled felt that their kids did not need vocational work experience when going from college to a job. As you can imagine, there were many opinions expressed in this poll.
There is no right or wrong answers in a poll; they just express ones opinions and/or beliefs. For example, I believe the New York Yankees are the greatest franchise in Major League Baseball history. The Yankees have twenty six championships and the most retired numbers in MLB. You can visit http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=nyy for more information. This website will show you those who have the same belief and those who disagree.
Hi Hip
I agree with your article about the Caves and Spurs poll doesn't reflect a real result. I admit to voting on ESPN.com for this survey for the Cavs. The polls outcome just showed how many Cavs fans outvoted the Spurs fans. Of course we know what the outcome of the Finals was
I think that public opinion does kind of shape how some people live in some situations. It’s an easy way to see what thoughts a majority or minority point of view can generate about either side of an opinion. I think that there can be 3 types of unconscious thought processes that we as humans can go through when looking at the results of a widespread poll. We can look at a minority opinion and “support the underdog” and take comfort that few people are sticking to their guns. We can look at the majority opinion and jump on the bandwagon and simply follow what’s assumed as what everybody wants. Or we can just look at a poll and not think anything of it; not care about what position other people are supporting or not supporting. Unfortunately I think that there are more of the fist two types of groups than the third. I think with so much people being polled, there can never be a unified point of view that’s represented. Even in a poll of 3, it could be very difficult to get a joined opinion because everybody is unique.
An interesting website I found was a site that starts off with a view of the history of polling. It was interesting to me because poll were much more difficult to conduct back in those days. It’s also interesting because you can see that it really hasn’t changed much either. Polling is still just a set of limited options that ultimately shows which point of view is the most popular.
the link is:
http://www.mackinac.org/article.aspx?ID=8011
Alestri, I agree with what you said about wanting to voice your opinion through some kind of polling process, without the usual robotic gathering of info that polls are like now. I think that poll results should not be useful to the common individual. They definitely are useful to marketing schemes and business strategy, but I think that the common person should not be so concerned with the results of a poll. It doesn’t seem like a good addition to a decision process because it doesn’t come from within. To me it just sounds like a distraction that can lead you away from a point of view that you truly have.
Alestri, I agree with what you said about wanting to voice your opinion through some kind of polling process, without the usual robotic gathering of info that polls are like now. I think that poll results should not be useful to the common individual. They definitely are useful to marketing schemes and business strategy, but I think that the common person should not be so concerned with the results of a poll. It doesn’t seem like a good addition to a decision process because it doesn’t come from within. To me it just sounds like a distraction that can lead you away from a point of view that you truly have.
Alestri, I agree with what you said about wanting to voice your opinion through some kind of polling process, without the usual robotic gathering of info that polls are like now. I think that poll results should not be useful to the common individual. They definitely are useful to marketing schemes and business strategy, but I think that the common person should not be so concerned with the results of a poll. It doesn’t seem like a good addition to a decision process because it doesn’t come from within. To me it just sounds like a distraction that can lead you away from a point of view that you truly have.
Sorry, my computer wasn't responding so I pressed the "post" button too many times! sorry....
When I went to the website the National Council on Public Polls I really was confused on what I was looking for. I read the sections about NCPP and 20 Questions A Journalist Should Ask About Poll Results and It did not answer the question, “What kinds of opinions do you find interesting on this site?” I went to the member list and click on the Gallup poll section and found what I believe I was looking for. The reason why I went to the Gallop polls is because the Gallop polls are the one I am familiar with. The kinds of opinions I found interesting on this site were the opinions about the war in Iraq and Hillary Clinton is the most positively rated presidential candidate among blacks, and Hispanics.
I believe public opinion only affects us in our immediate circles. The opinion of someone else, I believe only matters to us. Global issues such as the war on Iraq and terrorism only affects us to a certain extant. If these issues really hit us close then public opinion would affect us. I believe that public opinion has only a little effect on society. The issues that affect me, like I believe so many others is the cost of gas even though it has went down and the cost of living in the Bay Area. Public opinion polls only affect people that really care.
One opinion that I have is that Ms. Wanzo has a higher standard for her former students. Knowing what polls reveal — and what they don’t — ultimately means differentiating truth from falsehood. This is no small matter given the fallibility of the media and the extent to which millions of voters are influenced by the opinions of others.
I agree with Magnus Duru when she said, “Opinion polls influence publics' understanding about an issue, as the public would always perceive.” It was strange to go to Election Reports “2004 Polls Analysis” and see how short a time the polls were conducted and how small the sample sizes were. The public wanted John Kerry to win, I believed, but in the majority of the major polls conducted President Bush won.
Hi Sandye,
I appreciate your comments with regard to the Iraq war. This is a great example of how the American public was manipulated from the beginning into believing that we had a justifiable reason for going over there. The result has been an immeasurable loss of life and an inexcusable waste of funds. Hopefully, we will learn from this enormous error in judgment and choice.
And thank you for reminding me that the Internet is a great resource and tool for learning. Occasionally, I am intimidated by the overwhelming amount of information one can find on the web on any topic.
Lastly, in the other post I spelled your name incorrectly; sorry about that.
Thank you,
Lisa
Everyday people can hear the public opinion polls from news, reports and media. Especially, during the period of president election, congress election and voting, people can figure out how many people have same and different opinion with them from the polls; sometime, people would make decision depend on the polls.
Before reading the text book and doing researching about public opinion poll, I always trust that the polls from media, news and reports. However, “Public polls can be used not just determine public opinion but to manipulate it. (p181)” Indeed, people’s opinion and decision always is affected by the public opinion polls. When people collect the public opinion, they will create the question that use to ask people for opinion. The words of question are very important and tricky. On some issues, question wording can result of directing people to change their opinion and conflicting people’s feeling. Why they use that word instead of this word? Now, to be a critical thinker, I will take a deeper look at those questions before I pick decision so I will be able to see something behind.
Therefore, the public opinion polls are very powerful in the society; they can influence the result of election, voting and police. Being responsible for the society, we have to have opinion and decision thorough the full understanding of the situation and condition, but not just depend on the public opinion polls.
I found a very interesting topic about the polls of same-sex marriage. Although there are a lot of people feel apposite the gay and homosexual would be allowed to serve in the U.S. military, adopt baby, equal job opportunity and human right in the society, in marriage police, they feel opposite. In my our opinion, as a human in the world, we are all have equal right with every people, not matter the people with difference of race, ethnic, sexuality and culture.
This is website link: http://www.pollingreport.com/civil.
Hello Alex,
After I read your post, I really impact on what you said about the 3 types of unconscious thought processes related to the public opinion polls. Sometime, we do agree something but we don’t know how to define, that is unconscious assumption. Probably, we are influenced by the polls that we hear from media, and professional reports; and then we fill them in our mental file as the facts unconsciously. So, when we make a decision, we will put the one that already in our mind.
When I visited the National Council on Public Polls it really cleared up somethings for me. I always wondered how acurate the polls were and how they picked the people who were apart of the polls.
When I goggled I got book titles and poll samples. I believe that alot of decisions that companies make are based on public opinion polls.
Upon my arrival to the site, I found myself lost and I wasn’t sure what I was really looking at. After an explanation of what the site provided, I found several different sites after reviewing Member List. This led me to polls that ranged from consumer goods to government issues. The opinions I found interesting are the public opinion sites and an article regards polls and different ways of executing polls.
Public opinion shapes our live in several ways from what products will be available to who will be our next president. Public opinions can also sway an individual’s original opinion (Asch’s experiment). The results of the polls impact our daily life from our jobs to our life style. Take technology… the internet has replaced the way some people do research. When I was younger, I went to the library to do my research. My search engine was not Google or Yahoo but the library catalog and reference books. I still use the library today for some of my research.
Here’s what I found when I googled for ‘understanding polls or public opinion’. I encountered sites where the main subject was President Bush, Iraq War or the elections. Here are a couple of polls that caught my eye because are different from the majority of sites listed.
•NEWSWEEK Poll: 90% Believe in God – Newsweek Beliefs
http://www.msnbc.msnc.com/id/17879317/site/newsweek/
•AP, coaches', Harris Top 25 rankings - College football - MSNBC ... (10/14/2006)
(Expert: Best, worst from '06 season)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5471317/
Here are a couple of blog I found on Google that caught my attention. The first one is where the residents of Chambersburg can post their opinions about their community. The second is a blog ask opinions on a question of the week. This weekend’s question is about health care plan and why the delay.
•Chambersburg Public Opinion - Home
www.publicopiniononline.com/ - 55k - Cached - Similar pages
•Public Opinion
www.sauer-thompson.com/ - 193k - Jun 29, 2007
The statistics gathered from the polls aren’t always accurate due to the way it is inferred. The way a statement is worded could sway or break your position. An example is the word ‘Affirmative action’. It was placed on the ballot one year to see if it should be eliminated. Some folks believed it would eliminate the labeling while other looked at it as leveling the playing field for things such as a job or being accepted into a university. I believe Affirmative Action is a good thing because it opens doors for the minority.
•http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/hiring/affirmativeact.htm
During presidential election time i pay very close attention to the public polls. I've always trusted that they were accurate. I didn't give much thought as to how the media came up with the numbers. After reviewing the NCPP website, i found it absolutely interesting. Aside from the Presidential Election Polls, other polls that I didn't know existed struck me as just as interesting. When I did the Google search on understanding public polling, there was a link to an article regarding the public opinion of Bible vs. Darwin and teaching them in school. http://www.geotimes.org/sept05/feature_evolutionpolls.html. It is a really good read.
Public polling is so very necessary, we need to understand where the majority stands on certain issues that are important or maybe need to become more important to society. Of course there are pros and cons to everything. Unfortunately, yes, public polling can persuade some people to vote one way rather than the other; but that is not always a bad thing. Public polling is basically sharing opinions about the things that matters to society.
Magnus, I posted my comment before I read others. I only stated that public polling is basically sharing our opinions about things that matters to us. But you're right, we get a lot more out of the polling results than just how many people agree or disagree with us on certain issues. Public Polling allows the powers that be (government) know what needs to be addressed, what is working and what isn't working. The more I reviewed other sites; it shows just how Public Opinions shape our society, completely.
After visiting the "National Council on Public Polls" site, I realized how many questions are manipulated into "tricking" people to respond a certain way. If questions are not fair and presented correctly, the polls can easily be biased towards one side making people respond a certain way that might not have revealed what their real thoughts on the issue were. For example, some polls on the topic of the Iraq war had questions that really persuaded the reader to answer a certain way, but they failed to capture the whole meaning behind the question. I believe that many people take the public polls as a certain, but it is really hard to assume that what 200 people responded could be assumed that that is what "all Americans or the majority of Americans" would have responded. Although, there are some public polls that are taken by un-biased people who do poll a lot of people, a variety of people, and the questions are not biased. These polls are more reliable and can work efficiently, especially during presidential elections. Take this site for example that was taken by CBS News on the Iraq war. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/10/10/opinion/polls/main930772.shtml
After visiting the "National Council on Public Polls" website I found that much of the information present was useful. I feel that public opinions are often skewed by personal beliefs as well as the believes of others around us. After visiting this site I found out that there are various ways of polling the public, different ways to gain insight on public opinion. There was a poll on the Iraq war, and interestingly enough the results of the poll seemed to contrast with what I personally believed. There was a wide variety of polls that ranged from public opinions on consumer products to opinions on war.
Public opinions shape the way we think and often influence our behavior. Public opinions persuades us to chose a certain cellphone carrier over another, or purchase a hybrid honda over a regular gas powered vehicle. These opinions polls can also go as far as persuading individuals on what political views to have as well as down playing or hyping as situation. Public opinion is very important in our everyday life, and because of this, the information taken from public opinions polls should be taken into context.
After reviewing a few polls, I went to google, and typed in "understanding polls" and I found some interesting information. I found that only 29% of the American public approve of our president. I found this by analyzing a poll from
http://meanderthal.typepad.com/meanderthal/2006/05/understanding_p.html,
which showed that only 1/4 of our country support our president.
In my opinion the internet is very resourceful and its interesting to be able to research a wide variety of subjects and topics.
I agree with what L.sayson said about the internet and the massive amounts of information presented via the internet. I also tend to believe that much of our own personal beliefs come from public opinion. In a way we are often persuaded and forced to conform with the norm, or persuaded to belief a certain side of a story or topic is true.
Before getting this blog assignment, I had never heard of the National Council on Public Polls. I mean I knew the public is influenced by polls and usually go with the more popular side, but I had no idea that there was a website dedicated to polls. As I went to the site, I was confused because there were so many different places and I didn't know where to go. I decided to scroll down and click on the link that said '20 Questions A Journalist Should Ask About Poll Results'. I just found it interesting how influenced people are by what others think. People just assume that everything about the public opinion is true and they cannot think for themselves.
As I went to Google, I saw many polls but there was one that caught my eye. It was on Stem Cell Research.
http://www.csicop.org/scienceandmedia/controversy/public-opinion.html
Reading through the article, I found out that not very many people were familiar with what it was and only about 25% had actually followed it and payed close attention to it. After Bush's decision on Stem Cell Research, the number of people who follwed it decreased to 13%. This was interesing because I was able to see how the public was influenced by a decision.
There were many other interesting blogs and articles that I could have chosen from, but I found this one to be most interesting.
Hey Kash,
I wanted to share with you that during presidential elections, I too was really concerned with the public polls and actually believed that they were accurate. I believed that when they said "polls reveal that candidate Al Gore would win the presidential election at 52%" he would definitely win, but as we all know now, that didn't happen. One must pay attention to public polls, but realize that they are not always accurate.
I went to the site on "National Council on Public Polls". The public is constantly depending on what other put out in the media to be true, although there are some times where the information is misleading, or isn't true at all.
The public opinion and what people give us thats so called information sometimes shapes the way we as a society handle things. We depend so much on what the next person's saying we are blinded by the information thats really given to us. The more people are willing to believe the more their going to run with it.
www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/upcp/1998
I agree with what Maria is saying because a lot of the questions on polls are misleading and they are trying to presuade you to go one way. I also agreed that the website from CBS on the Iraq War was a more reliable site because it wasn't biased and we are able to see both sides of the story.
Maria,
I agree with you many people think what they hear and watch through the media are true. They take that information and tell others and go on information that they think is true. Yet their blinded by the misleading information thats not even true or reworded to make u think one thing when its really another.
Well, similar to many people in the class, I spent more than half an hour on the site "National Council on Public Polls", I did not find anything attractive to me. However, when I clicked on the “related links”, I found interesting information about how people use the poll in the US history. In this link, http://www.publicopinionpros.com/features/2004/nov/shapiro.htm
It said that Franklin Roosevelt was the first president to use polling data that make the public more receptive to helping Great Britain early in World War II. Then later Richard Nixon claimed that leaders should not conduct or rely on polling. However, he was the one did more polling than any one. He once used to track the progress of gaining public and political support for mainland China’s membership in the UN and further diplomatic opening to China.
Here is another story about Bill Clinton. His administration polled like crazy on health care reform. He actually used the poll to help see how to craft messages and a campaign to sell the plan. However, it failed and the Democrats took a beating in the 1994 midterm elections. Then Clinton fired his pollster. All these showed negative effects of poll, as I read the article, I asked: why should we answer to the poll then? I agree the author says that: “Polls, in principle, can be stunningly democratic and, especially, egalitarian, because they attempt to find out the opinions of a sample of everyone, not just those who have the opportunity and economic or other interest in being engaged actively in politics. In practice there are problems in pursuing such equality of voice, but polls can strive toward that goal”
One opinion I would say about this society is that: we should keep the minimum legal drinking age at 21. first reason is: at 21, we are more mature and less likely our brain will be damaged while drink a lot. Also, we will have more traffic accident if the minimum legal drinking age lower to 18. here is the web to support it:
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/13246.html
hi L. sayson and Phillip
I agree with your opinion about the internet. You can shop, listen to music, read, watch movie, do research and everything you can want. In fact, I am that kind of person that whenever I have question on my study, I will try to find the answer on the internet first.
This blog is closed.
Ms. Wanzo
I believe that public polls are just a bunch of numbers that are used to persuade people's opinion to vote certain way on a ballot. The polls are right to a certain extent. On the other hand, the questions that are asked to the public are worded in such a way that tricks the individuals to answer in a different way. It is a strategy that is very biased and it is used in most public opinion polls. The results for blogs can be similar to the polls in that peole do not want to be looked differently, so they decide to agree with others even if they really do not feel that way. However, in blogs you have the oppotunity to voice more of an opinion if you like.
I forgot to post the internet site that I found interessting with my blog comment. I decided to go with this particular site because I like to keep up with each election that takes place. http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/09/27/polls.explainer/
Hi Alex,
I agree with you on that each person is not going to be represented in public polls and everyone is unique. I guess I did not think about that to much. In that case, some polls are biased while other are not. However, we need to make sure if they are credible our not.
After my visit to “National Council on Public Polls" I realized that how different opinions shapes a particular case, for some people seems favored while for others deemed as well as disappointed. For example, for the first time since the war in Iraq began, more than half of the American public believes the fight there has not made the United States safer.
While the focus in Washington has shifted from the Iraq conflict to Social Security and other domestic matters, the survey found that Americans continue to rank Iraq second only to the economy in an importance and that many are losing patience with the activity.
Perhaps most threatening for President Bush, 52 percent said war in Iraq has not contributed to the long term security of the United States, while 47 percent said it has. You may conclude on a majority of Americans disagreed with the central notion Bush has offered to build support for war that the fight there will make Americans safer from terrorists at home.
In other hand, more than half 52 percent disapprove of how Bush is handling his job, the highest of his presidency. A somewhat larger majority 56 percent disapproved of Republicans in Congress, and an identical proportion disapproved.
I discovered how public opinion were different particularly when you voted against government interest you might disappointed, but you have to accept that is the only ways.
However, what I do believe as well as my opinion on occupation of Iraq was wrong. Even though it was interesting to me, poll were much more difficult to conduct as well to believe in which some peoples opinions were disapproved how Bush handling his job where as other were favored the occupation of Iraq were wrong . Opinion poll is still just a set of limited options that ultimately shows which point of view are the most accepted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com
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