Abstract
Editors Christina Holtz-Bacha, professor of communication at the University of Erlanger-Nurnberg, Germany, and Jesper Strömbäck, professor of media and communication at Mid-Sweden University, have compiled an excellent description of polling throughout the world. They achieved this by getting top polling experts from seven countries—Brazil, Germany, the United States, Hong Kong, South Africa, Slovenia, and Australia—to write chapters.
Stomback opens the book with an overview including what public opinion is, how public opinion and polling connect, and what media do with polls. The rest of the book is divided into three sections: Theoretical and Methodological Approaches, The Media’s Presentation of Opinion Polls, and Effects and Consequences of Published Opinion Polls.
The section “Theoretical and Methodological Approaches” deals with the history of the concept of public opinion and the history of polling, regulation of polling, and the evolution of polling methodology.
The section “The Media’s Presentation of Opinion Polls” has chapters on six countries—the United States, Germany, Brazil, Australia, South Africa, and Taiwan. Each is written by a polling expert from that country. It is an interesting combination of countries because they differ in how long they have had polling and in the extent of governmental control of polling.
I found the chapter on the United States by Kathleen A. Frankovic, retired director of surveys for CBS News, very interesting because of the insider insights that she put in the chapter. Those who do polling in the United States will find this useful.
The section “Effects and Consequences of Published Opinion Polls” deals with the effect of polls on the public and the politicians and the part played by media coverage on both.
Two themes run throughout the book. One is that where you have polls, you have horserace journalism. Is this because of what pollsters ask or how media use polls results? The answer is that both contribute. Media want horserace kinds of results. Pollsters know this, and this may affect what they ask because they want media to use their poll results.
The other is transparency. It is generally recognized that polls stories should include question wording, sample size, sampling error, how sample was selected, response rate, who paid for the survey, and when the survey was done. The need for such information is recognized around the world. Some governments have passed laws and professional organizations like AAPOR have created standards to address this, but pollsters and media often ignore these criteria. This lessens the credibility of all polls.
One strength of this book is that each chapter has an extensive bibliography. In total, there are more than eight hundred items, making this probably the largest bibliography of survey research books and articles in print.
Several things I was looking for are not there. One is a description of the role Pew Research is playing in survey research in the United States. A second is the role of university survey centers. There are close to a hundred. Most do not play a national role, but their survey results do appear in local media and scholarly journals. The third is data repositories and their use in secondary analysis now being done by many researchers.
Nonetheless, this is a book that survey researchers, media people, and journalism faculty member will find useful because in various ways, it will increase their knowledge of polling and its role in making news.