Notes

The basic idea of polling is to get a basic idea of the public's choice at that moment in time. This method works some of the time but there is a margin for error as president truman knew. The newspaper relied so much on the polls that they predicted the outcome of the election but not correctly. Another problem facing this method is not being able to reach people, because they are using cells instead of land lines. This is a big problem because with less people available polls are less accurate, and with less accurate polls then the public does not stay informed of correct information. I the public is not well informed there could be another truman incident. Another problem caused by not being able to reach the population is that the polls could be bias because only people that want to participate, participate and they are the extremely supportive ones. And that is a problem because they don't give a good idea of the public's choice they give an idea of the extremely political people. This can cause a problem because the political people that take the polls could sway the decision of the public which could change the outcome of the election. These are all problems facing polls that weren’t facing them when they first started which makes them less accurate.


What is the basic idea behind polling? Polling offers an idea of what the entire population is “thinking”. According to the article, “The basic idea behind polling is that questioning a relatively small number of people can give a good idea of what and entire population in thinking.” This supports my idea, that polling shows what the population is thinking. Another quote from the article is, “Polls offer the public a sense of which candidate is ahead.” This also shows, what polls had to offer. Therefore, polling offers an idea of what the entire population is “thinking” is the basic idea behind polling.