Is the "public opinion" of the questionnaire survey really reliable?

Polls are designed to measure the public's attitude towards a certain issue or opinion. Although opinion polls are not the scope of work of journalists, journalists often write reports about opinion polls. Some high-profile opinion polls usually focus on elections and politics, and the newsroom will pay close attention to these opinion polls to see which candidates are ahead, who is most likely to win, and the issues that voters are most interested in.

Other opinion polls also provide research on people's thoughts and attitudes. For example, government agencies may conduct public opinion surveys to find out whether local voters will support raising sales tax to fund school construction. Researchers often conduct national opinion polls to better understand American people's attitudes towards public policy issues, such as gun control, immigration reform and legalization of drug abuse.

When reporting opinion polls, it is very important for reporters to judge the quality of the survey, and the conclusions drawn from the survey must be consistent with the collected data. Sometimes, pollsters generalize or exaggerate their findings too generally; Sometimes, the objects they choose or the way they collect data are flawed, which makes it difficult to describe the true meaning of the survey results.

The following are 1 1 questions that we suggest journalists ask before reporting the opinion poll.

Although most of this information may not be used for news or broadcasting, these answers will help journalists decide how to express the results of opinion polls or whether to report them.

1. Who conducted the survey?

This is a very important question. Is this survey conducted by polling agencies, researchers, laymen, political movements or propaganda teams?

2. Who pays for the investigation?

Is this survey funded by individuals or organizations? As a result of the investigation, will individuals or organizations gain or lose anything obviously?

3. How do investigators choose the subjects?

The best opinion polls often choose respondents at random. Remember, if investigators select some interviewees in some way, for example, when they go to a shopping mall and ask people they meet there, the results may be very different from those when they ask questions from randomly sampled people.

4. How was the voting conducted?

It is important to find out whether the interviewee has filled in the questionnaire, answered the questions by telephone and conducted face-to-face interviews. The method of collecting information may affect the respondents themselves and people's reaction to the problem. For example, when people vote or accept surveys online, they are more likely to hide their true identity. A teenager may claim to be a retiree.