The Flawed Nature Of Media Polling: What Kind Of Question Is That?
By Jessica Dorian, 10.07.04

Polls are the media’s favorite technique to bring back their viewers after the commercial break. Networks throw out questions like: Who do you think the next president will be? Do you think that the president is in the best health to run the country? Is Kobe Bryant guilty? Is Michael Jackson a child molester?

Everyone has seen polls similar to these, if not, these exact ones. No one, besides an omniscient audience, can answer those questions. Why do the networks ask them?

A 2003 NewsMax.com article specifically concerned with Schwarzenegger poll ratings during the California election, quotes Kellyanne Conway, president of The Polling Company, expressing her concerns about the polling process of the news media:

The haste with which many media sponsored polls are drafted, put in the field and publicized creates its own 'margin of error.' If the conclusions, meaning tomorrow's headlines like 'Voter Support for Recall Drops,' are already written, then the polling process is just a fishing expedition used to produce evidence to support the conclusions already reached.

At Phyllis Schlafly’s annual Eagle Council Conference in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 17-19, Conway gave a speech addressing “What’s Wrong with Polls.” She identified four problems with polling trends:

· The focus is on phraseology, not ideology. The media often asks questions that are catchy attention-getters, but the answers give no credence to the issue.

“Useless questions are worse than biased ones,” Conway says. “They don’t force you to make a good choice.”

· Pollsters ask the audience’s opinions on matters they have no knowledge to make opinions about, so they naturally replace their opinions with their best or greatest hope.

· The science of polling is part of the problem. During an election race Pollsters frequently sample “adults,” when they should be sampling “registered voters.”

“The worst way to find likely voters is to ask people if they are likely to vote,” Conway stated.

· Polls have inherent limits. In politics, the worst thing to rely on polls for is to find out who will win an election. Polls should be used to increase knowledge and information to and from consumers.

Consumer education should be the target of the media’s polling. Networks should not ask news consumers questions that they do not have an informed opinion about. It is crucial during an election year to ask questions that will communicate the needs and concerns of the voting public. Polls should be specifically worded to gather concise information.

Voters get enough mixed messages and biased information on a regular basis from television news. They don’t need to be bombarded with useless questions that neither provide valuable information, nor appropriately gather consumers’ informed opinions.

The media is not likely to change polling trends before the end of the 2004 election. But if the networks want to enhance the marketplace of ideas for the next election environment, then trends in political polling need to change in the next four years.