Polls come of age
More than fifty years ago, George Gallup and a handful of others were trying to convince a skeptical public that a random sample of 1,500 people could accurately determine the views of millions of Americans.
As the track record of polling organizations improved and their credibility increased, they drew more and more attention from the media.
Polling is everywhere
Today, surveys are such an integral a part of analyzing and reporting the news that television networks, major newspapers, and news magazines each do their own polls.
This proliferation of polling provides both an opportunity and a challenge. The mass of data collected is a wonderful store of information about what people do and think.
On the other hand, trying to keep track of all the polling being done in the world is a huge undertaking.
Polling the Nations
The ultimate resource for polling information is Polling the Nations with more than 500,000 questions including the work of 1,000 polling organizations.
Each question asked in international, national, state, local, and special polls is listed under one of the 6,000 topics. The responses are included with each question.
Access to many sources
Among the advantages of having access to hundreds of polls, the most obvious is that useful information will not be overlooked inadvertently
Also, everything from state sales taxes to local property taxes that are too localized to be examined by national polls get careful scrutiny by state and local surveys.
Except for election returns, there is usually little external evidence to corroborate the findings of a given survey. So for all those other issues, the best check on the results of one poll are results of one or more other polls.
Because they are much more accurate barometers of public sentiment than miscellaneous interviews of people in the street, scientific surveys serve several important journalistic functions.
Journalists can use polling results to challenge the contentions of groups or individuals, trace trends in the mood of the public, and substantiate the positions taken in editorials.
Views of the media
Beyond their views about the major issues of the day, it is interesting to know what the public thinks about the press.
What do people think about the print and electronic media? Extensive polling in the last few years has collected a wealth of information on the subject.
Media
