Even when they're accurate, I'm not sure polls should have any place in political reporting, at least when it comes to campaigns. If it's a matter of figuring out how most Americans feel about topic X, then sure, polls can have value. But when it comes to an election, too many reporters use polls as a crutch, an aide for the lazy journalist. Polls don't show who is winning and who is losing. To say they do is to confuse Vegas odds on a football game with the game itself.
What can newspaper readers or newscast watchers actually gain from a report about polls? What more could they gain from reporting that focuses exclusively on candidates' experience, history, and policies?
Polling depends on identifying a “stratified random sample,” in the age of cell phones, caller ID, and quick turnaround errors in measurement makes polling useless. Pollsters use statistical algorithms to “adjust” polls. Some statisticians suggest using Facebook and Twitter data in lieu of traditional methods, bottom line, don’t bet the house on polling data
Even when they're accurate, I'm not sure polls should have any place in political reporting, at least when it comes to campaigns. If it's a matter of figuring out how most Americans feel about topic X, then sure, polls can have value. But when it comes to an election, too many reporters use polls as a crutch, an aide for the lazy journalist. Polls don't show who is winning and who is losing. To say they do is to confuse Vegas odds on a football game with the game itself.
What can newspaper readers or newscast watchers actually gain from a report about polls? What more could they gain from reporting that focuses exclusively on candidates' experience, history, and policies?
Polling depends on identifying a “stratified random sample,” in the age of cell phones, caller ID, and quick turnaround errors in measurement makes polling useless. Pollsters use statistical algorithms to “adjust” polls. Some statisticians suggest using Facebook and Twitter data in lieu of traditional methods, bottom line, don’t bet the house on polling data