Ye Olde Swimming Hole

current, insightful, yet nostalgic

Thursday, July 21, 2005

CNN's QUICKVOTE: The limits of public opinion relevance

Not to make fun of other people's work, but there are times when the CNN quick votes are just a joke. I realize they are not intended to be scientific or statistically significant, but sometimes they ask questions that from a public opinion standpoint are completely meaningless. Today for instance, they posted this question shortly after the London bombings. How in the world would the general public know if these bombings are related to the first and what good would it do to know the peoples' opinion on this question? Thankfully they quickly replaced this question with a question much more suited to polling public opinion: "Would the London bombings prevent you from visiting the city?" (No. Nearly 3 to 1). My purpose is not to criticize, but to point out that with a little extra thought put into it, this poll could be much more useful and relevant. There are questions asked that are very good.

1 Comments:

At 12:34 PM, Blogger Michael L. Heien said...

You are exactly right! CNNs questions (and often how they ask them) make no sense. A third grader could ask a better question.

 

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