Polling and the Media

Polling today has begun to draw much criticism. In past classes we have learned that these potential criticisms have come from many things such as the wording of the questions being asked, the order in which they are being asked, and even the number and demographic of the people being asked these questions. Understandably these can cause many problems for the public as well as pollsters. However, arguably the biggest criticism of public opinion polling is the way in which they are reported on. Polls tend to display the results in a way that best fits the agenda of the station. It is even often that the station itself has sponsored the poll. This creates biases throughout every level of the polling process creating skewed and not fully true results. Other problems within media is due to the concentration of ownership within the industry. It is said that 80% of newspapers are owned by the same chain, as well as, 85% of broadcast T.V. stations are affiliated with one of the three major networks, ABC, NBC, and CBS. They report on these polls depending on what the poll is covering, how the issue is being covered, and unfortunatly the desire to make profits. These criteria can be very different across the board of various media outlets leading to very different polls on different stations. This problem is especially significant in the United States because we are a republican democracy in which the people have ultimate governing authority. Because of this there needs to be a reliable means for facilitating a 2-way communication between the general public and their represenatives within government. With faulty and biased polls the American public will not be able to clearly and effectively communicate their problems and concerns to their represenatives.