Announcement | 31. January 2006
Special Issue of Public Opinion Quarterly
Polling Politics, Media, and Election Campaigns
Did the polls "get it wrong" in the 2004 election? Do certain polls have a "liberal" or "conservative" bias, as alleged by partisans in the campaign? Did journalists accurately cover polling controversies in 2004, or did they contribute to them? These and other questions are addressed in a special December 2005 issue of Public Opinion Quarterly.
Edited by Lawrence Jacobs and Robert Shapiro, director of the Public Opinion Project at ISERP, this issue examines the polls, the media and their evolving relationship. Appearing on the 25th anniversary of an influential POQ symposium on the polls and the media, this issue assembles an extraordinary collection of national experts to take current stock of "the polls," media reporting on them, and their use in the American political process at the beginning of the 21st century. The essays demonstrate that pre-election polls are quite accurate (despite the criticism of partisans), that press reporting about the methods of polls has often been mistaken and distracting, and that campaigns are privately using polls to narrowcast their messages and voter mobilizations efforts. While polls have the capability to enhance democratic accountability and responsiveness, some news reporting and uses of polls detract from these potential benefits. Available at www.oxfordjournals.org/poq/special.html.
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