Promotional Information

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.

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.

Reviews

?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