December 21, 2007
NewsU Adds Election Polling Sections
With the deluge of new primary polls this week, I nearly neglected to pass along word that Poynter's NewsU online course for journalists on "Understanding and Interpreting Polls" added a new section this week on "How Election Polls Work."
The new sections of the course, which were developed in partnership with the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR), include the following:
How Election Polls Work gives journalists the tools to understand why good polls can report very different numbers, how to identify trends in voter preference, and how to interpret subgroup responses...
Interpreting Polls explains how to: decide what might be the lead of a story, write about subgroups, look at poll results over time and draw conclusions from those trends, and understand why similar polls might have different results.
Beyond the Horserace includes understanding how exit polls are conducted and what they tell us, and how to use polling data in reporting throughout the election cycle.
The course is available free of charge to registered users of NewsU.
Interests Disclosed: I am a member of AAPOR's Executive Council.
By Mark Blumenthal on December 21, 2007 11:53 PM | Permalink