POLLS AND SURVEYS
What ARE they thinking?
What is the difference?
POLLS
SURVEYS
Used to gauge opinion
about topics by asking
ONE simple/direct
question.
Used to gauge
satisfaction or opinion
by asking multiple
questions.
POLLS & SURVEYS
●
●
Add an extra dimension to story
writing and reporting.
Can be added to a story to help
relevance and to add context
REPORTING ON A POLL
OR SURVEY
In order to report on a poll or survey accurately, keep
these things in mind:
✓
Was the poll objective?
✓
Was it conducted by someone who has
something to gain in the outcome?
If so, the results are likely skewed and not
accurate
✓
Were the survey questions clear and accurate
measures of what the survey intended to
measure?
✓
Were the questions phrased in a way to lead
the participants to answer a certain way?
CONTINUED….
Things to keep in mind when reporting on a survey:
✓
Were the questions clear?
✓
Was there the social desirability effect?
(participants try to answer a question the way
they think they should answer)
✓
Did the order of the questions skew the results?
Priming: asking a question that incites emotion
or personal interest and then asking for an
opinion on an action; the first question LEADS
them to answer to second one in such a way
CONTINUED….
Things to keep in mind when reporting on a
survey:
✓
Who participated?
✓
Participants must represent the
population they were drawn from
Representative samples are samples that
represent the population from which
participants were selected
Consider if it is representative of gender,
race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status
and grade level
✓
✓
THE NUMBERS MUST BE PRESENT IN THE
SURVEY AS THEY ARE IN THE POPULATION
CONTINUED….
Things to keep in mind when reporting on a
survey:
✓
Were there any problems with the poll?
✓
Was it conducted a while ago? If so, it
may no longer be representative of the
population.
✓
Many voices are better than a few.
✓
Making sure there is proper
representation is CRUCIAL.
RECAP!
COVER THESE BASES:
✓
Was the poll objective?
✓
Were the questions clear?
✓
Social desirability effect?
✓
Was there priming?
✓
Who participated?
✓
Were there any problems with the poll?
DESIGNING YOUR
SURVEY AND
QUESTIONS
ASK IF YOUR QUESTIONS:
✓
Measure what you want to find out
✓
Use the clearest, most direct language you can
✓
Lead the participants to certain answers
*They SHOULD NOT — the questions should be
objective
✓
Allow for a variety of questions
✓
If the topic is complicated, make sure to break it
apart and ask questions about each part
If you were to vote today, would
you vote for student council
president candidate A or
candidate B?
What candidate do you believe
gave the best speech: candidate
A or candidate B?
Did you volunteer for any
student council campaigns?
Gender, age, grade-level,
race/ethnicity, income
EXAMPLES OF
GOOD SURVEY
QUESTIONS
PICKING THE RIGHT
SAMPLE
SAMPLE = REPRESENTATION OF POPULATION
DIRECTLY INFLUENCED BY ISSUE AT HAND
✧
Sample should accurately represent the
population you are interested in – specificity
✧
Once you know the sample, make sure that
everyone in the group has a chance of
participating
✧
Random sampling - draw names from hat, take a
list and pick every “nth” name
✧
You need to be 95% certain of your results
HOW TO BE 95%
CERTAIN
➢
You’re going to have to do math… seriously
Not really… you can have this fabulous website do it
for you
http://fluidsurveys.com/survey-sample-size-calculator
/
➢
Seriously… don’t try it on your own
This calculator will figure the sample size for your
population with an acceptable margin of error
➢
95% certain = 19 times out of 20 you get the same
results