Are polls, in the media, skewed?

[Pellaken]

this is an example of a skewed poll. look at all the options for someone wanting to vote for something left-wing, and only 1 option for someone wanting to vote for something right wing. this will cause it to appear as if "most people" are right wing. I've sometimes noticed the media doing this, has anyone else?

 

[Hamlet]

If people don't have the common sense to add up all the left wing responses and tally them against the right wing votes, then I pity them.

 

[Simon Darkshade]

I think that the point is that the original poll is skewed, either through options or questions, but the results are printed as if they are impartial, 100% true gospel.
In a circumstance such as the one outlined, the various evil leftist options would be tallied together, and then processed to show that there are more lefties than right-thinking individuals.

There are many ways to subtly and not-so subtly fix a poll to give it the results you desire, and this is just one of them.

 

[Greadius]

Originally posted by Pellaken
I've sometimes noticed the media doing this, has anyone else?

Can you give an example?
This sounds more like you finally realizing that you're in the vast ideological majority and are looking for justification.

 

[Hitro]

Originally posted by Hamlet
If people don't have the common sense to add up all the left wing responses and tally them against the right wing votes, then I pity them.

Start doing that!
Alot of people who would read a statistic that tells them about racial diversity in some place this way: 40% are black, 20% white, 15% pale, 15% very pale and 10% asian would actually believe that blacks are the biggest group there...
Can I prove that? No. But think about it...

 

[Archbob]

I'm fairly sure most are slighty skewed towards to left.

 

[Pellaken]

well, its mostley from the canadian political system.
the liberals tend to win elections, cause we have 1 liberal party, but 2 conservative parties. the media, often uses this to say the nation is, a majority, liberal, when, in fact, in the last election, the 2 conservative parties, tallied a large ammount of the votes, and, if you, were to, include those that went libeal, who, truley, wanted to, but dident, go conservative, then, by chance, you get these 2 things, which are, in order, a long run on sentance, and skewed media polls.

 

[Pellaken]

Originally posted by Fallen Angel Lord
I'm fairly sure most are slighty skewed towards to left.

where do you come from! everyone knowes the media is right wing!! especially in the US

 

[Hamlet]

Originally posted by Pellaken
where do you come from! everyone knowes the media is right wing!! especially in the US

North American leftists claim that the American media is biased towards the right, and the rigtists claim it is biased towards the left.

Who am I to believe?

 

[Pellaken]

Originally posted by Hamlet


North American leftists claim that the American media is biased towards the right, and the rigtists claim it is biased towards the left.

Who am I to believe?

the 100% truth is that they are 100% centrist.

 

[Reichsmarshal]

When polls of the media in the United States are taken most of the votes are liberal or supposedly liberal-centrist. Only a few in the media vote conservative on those polls.

 

[Greadius]

Originally posted by Hamlet
Who am I to believe?

Neither of them. Use your own judgement.

Originally posted by Reichsmarshal
When polls of the media in the United States are taken most of the votes are liberal or supposedly liberal-centrist. Only a few in the media vote conservative on those polls.

Rush Limbaugh fact.

The only poll I've ever seen to support that arguement was a poll done on Washington D.C. based Newspaper journalists and who they voted for in the 1992 Elections.

The majority of them voted with the majority of the people in America (and especially Washington DC), and has been called leftist ever since.

 

[VoodooAce]

Originally posted by Hamlet


North American leftists claim that the American media is biased towards the right, and the rigtists claim it is biased towards the left.

Who am I to believe?

Neither. Or both.

Like Greadius said, the media is almost certainly a microcosm ofthe entire population.

A conservative can sit and watch the same broadcast I do, but being a leftist I'm more likely to notice, or at least imagine, a right wing bias to a story, while the evil conservative sees the opposite.

Fact of life.

For instance, I can sit and watch CNN and only rarely will I notice any liberal bias.

But I can watch the Fox News Channel and notice a right wing bias throughout. To me, Fox is basically a 24 hour commercial for the President and Republicans.

 

[amadeus]

Originally posted by VoodooAce



For instance, I can sit and watch CNN and only rarely will I notice any liberal bias.

But I can watch the Fox News Channel and notice a right wing bias throughout. To me, Fox is basically a 24 hour commercial for the President and Republicans.

Same thing for me, every time I watch CNN (Clinton News Network), that's all I hear is Bush-bashing. It's perspective.

 

[SKILORD]

Originally posted by Hamlet


North American leftists claim that the American media is biased towards the right, and the rigtists claim it is biased towards the left.

Who am I to believe?

it's biased to the left of course

 

[knowltok2]

Oh, now we see the bias inherent in the system! Help! Help! I'm being presented with skewed information.

Originally posted by VoodooAce
while the evil conservative

Oh! You hear that? Dead give-away. -That's what I'm on about! You heard it, didn't you?



I take it all with a grain of salt. (okay, a mine of salt) Statistics and poll results are my favorite things to poke holes in. Especially when conclusions are drawn without presenting all of the background info.

 

[Richard III]

Polls in general are skewed. They can be easily rigged, and they often inadvertantly get rigged even by innocent buyers, simply because the search for a particular answer presumes that the public is actually ready to answer that question. Yes Prime Minister has an excellent - and very realistic - scene or two with Bernard and Humphrey on how polls can also be deliberately rigged without actually being rigged at all.



But focus groups are way cool, man



"I can get you any answer you want, Mr. Stamper, provided you're willing to pay for it."

Pollster Sarah Harding to the Chief Whip, in the BBC's "To Play the King."

 

[Pellaken]

Originally posted by rmsharpe


Same thing for me, every time I watch CNN (Clinton News Network), that's all I hear is Bush-bashing. It's perspective.

*reads the comment*
no no no... the thread your looking for is the one called "are you stupid of just deaf" you apperentley never hear the constant clinton bashing...

my opinion! since everyone is bashed, I dont care.

 

[Sparrowhawk]

Having never taken any real sort of "media sponsored" poll I can't say whether polls themselves are skewed. I do know that I have seen a lot of poll results that are skewed, ie. only show limited parts of the data, or confuse the issue.

 

[Greadius]

My limited experience on polling...

Yes, polls can be made to show anything. 28% of polls are made up on the spot. 61% of the people know that.

However, proffessional polls conducted by generally respected media outlets have a stated goal of being impartial. Generally, the media is interested in telling people who respondants feel on an issue. Polling can be accurate, it can be far off, but it rarely (5% of the time) is outside the margin of error.

Is the question skewed? Sometimes, but the stated goal of the media outlets is to find the truth. If they skew a poll to gain the results they want they've wasted their time in actually paying for the poll since the results were designed ahead of time. Asking as open ended and non-restricting questions as possible allows for the answer to reflect on how their feelings reflect with the majority. If you read a poll question, think you would answer no, and the poll found 60% of the people answered no too, the only conclusion you can draw is that you're in the majority in how you would answer that question. The idea isn't to influence people's opinions as much as it is to reflect people's opinions.


Since there is some fun here, can anyone post some official poll questions and results they think were skewed to one side?