Public Opinion Polls have become an prominent feature of American politics. In the following activities, you will gain firsthand experience in conducting and reporting public opinion polls and then explore what happens when public opinion polls do not accurately or fully represent the opinions of the public.
Public Opinion Polls have become an prominent feature of American politics. A poll is a survey given to a small sample of chosen respondents as a way to reveal what larger numbers of people think about a political issue or election candidate.
Poll results are often widely reported in both print and online media. They are meant to provide information about people and politics that would not be readily available in other ways.
From the standpoint of critical media literacy, it is important to understand what polls can and cannot tell us about what people want from government or who people want to elect to public office. There are two important factors to keep in mind.
First, ideally polls support democracy. The information they provide contributes to everyone’s knowledge and understanding of politics and policy. As the Pew Research Center crucially noted, “in nations without robust polling, the head of government can simply decree citizens’ wants and needs instead” (Key Things to Know about Election Polling in the United States, August 5, 2020, para. 1).
Second, in reality polls have limitations and shortcomings. Any poll is just a snapshot in time and may not reflect people’s changing attitudes or behaviors. For example, a person may complete a poll saying they intend to vote in an election and then decide not to. Or, a person may not answer a poll honestly, saying they voted for one candidate when in fact they voted for another candidate instead. For these reasons, polls may miss the levels of support or opposition for issues or candidates actually present in society.
Activity 1: Conduct an Opinion Poll on an Issue of Interest
Design a list of questions to collect data about how people plan vote in an upcoming election or whether people support a currently elected political candidate of your choosing.
Compare and contrast your responses to available state and national polls on your selected topic (e.g., here is a poll on mask wearing during the pandemic from National Geographic).
Ask those who completed your poll what they think of public opinion polls and how reliable they are.
Create a newspaper article or blog post to present your findings. Include visuals, such as graphs and charts.
Activity 2: Conduct an Opinion Poll on Election Voting or a Political Candidate
Design a list of questions to collect data about how people plan vote in an upcoming election or whether people support a political candidate of your choosing.
Explain the process of elections in the legislative and executive branches and the process of nomination/confirmation of individuals in the judicial and executive branches (Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for History and Social Science) [8.T3.4]
3b: Students evaluate the accuracy, perspective, credibility and relevance of information, media, data, or other resources.
3d: Students build knowledge by actively exploring real-world issues and problems, developing ideas and theories and pursuing answers and solutions.
Computational Thinker
5b. Students collect data or identify relevant data sets, use digital tools to analyze them, and represent data in various ways to facilitate problem-solving and decision-making.
Creative Communicator
6a: Students choose the appropriate platforms and tools for meeting the desired objectives of their creation or communication.
6b: Students create original works or responsibly repurpose or remix digital resources into new creations.
6d: Students publish or present content that customizes the message and medium for the intended audiences.