2008 Woodie Awards
Profs, students question influence of polls
Charlie Turner
Issue date: 2/29/08 Section: Campus
With Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) running neck-and-neck for the Democratic nomination, political pundits and analysts are looking to Texas and Ohio as the deciding factors this primary season-relying on polls and surveys as barometers of the electorate to gauge the outcome.
However, just as Ohio's weather is wildly unpredictable, one shouldn't be too quick to judge this barometer as an absolute forecast of things to come.
According to Miami University political science assistant professor Monica Schneider, polls are too often the driving force of news reporting and hold too much influence on public opinion.
"Why is this important for democracy?" Schneider said. "The idea behind campaigns is that people get the information they need to make the best choice. Are these polls and this reporting and this analysis of these polls-are they helping people do this or not?"
According to Schneider, polls need to be presented with additional information, such as margins of error and details of the sampling in order to be properly interpreted.
Schneider also reprimanded the news networks' use of polls in their attempts to boost excitement and ratings.
"I think the media is constantly trying to make political polling and campaigns exciting," Schneider said. "And in order to do that, they present these horse race polls and try to make it into this big exciting thing instead of reporting on things like, what issues do Clinton and Obama support."
Junior economics major Greg Hoover said he thinks polls are too often presented as more representative than they actually are.
"They (voters) treat one poll like it's the word of God instead of the opinion of that sample," Hoover said.
Scott Keeter, director of survey research for the Pew Research Center in Washington D.C., disagrees with Schneider. Keeter said that polls allow greater democratic participation by voicing the opinions of the voting population.
However, just as Ohio's weather is wildly unpredictable, one shouldn't be too quick to judge this barometer as an absolute forecast of things to come.
According to Miami University political science assistant professor Monica Schneider, polls are too often the driving force of news reporting and hold too much influence on public opinion.
"Why is this important for democracy?" Schneider said. "The idea behind campaigns is that people get the information they need to make the best choice. Are these polls and this reporting and this analysis of these polls-are they helping people do this or not?"
According to Schneider, polls need to be presented with additional information, such as margins of error and details of the sampling in order to be properly interpreted.
Schneider also reprimanded the news networks' use of polls in their attempts to boost excitement and ratings.
"I think the media is constantly trying to make political polling and campaigns exciting," Schneider said. "And in order to do that, they present these horse race polls and try to make it into this big exciting thing instead of reporting on things like, what issues do Clinton and Obama support."
Junior economics major Greg Hoover said he thinks polls are too often presented as more representative than they actually are.
"They (voters) treat one poll like it's the word of God instead of the opinion of that sample," Hoover said.
Scott Keeter, director of survey research for the Pew Research Center in Washington D.C., disagrees with Schneider. Keeter said that polls allow greater democratic participation by voicing the opinions of the voting population.
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