POLS 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Socioeconomic Status, Capitalism, Baby Boomers
Document Summary
Survey research considerations: americans have an extremely low level of political knowledge (basic facts about. Definition and importance how our system works) People know they have 2 senators. People know their representatives: opinion instability: same respondent will sometimes give contradictory response to the same question at different points in time. Low levels of knowledge, drawing on different kinds of framing. Push polling - sham polling, used to get a specific answer. Usually poll americans by phone calls (tracking) Quick, cheap, can select a random sample within certain parameters, easy. Weighting after the fact if not entirely representative of population. Cell phones complicate polling, landlines are attached to a geographical area, many people are ditching landlines so have to include cell phones in sample. Internet surveys becoming more prevalent: 1936 election (roosevelt v ralph landon), literacy digest doing a telephone survey, depression also going, say that ralph landon is going to win by a landslide.