Reporting public opinion : how the media turns boring polls into biased news

Author(s)

    • Larsen, Erik Gahner
    • Fazekas, Zoltán

Bibliographic Information

Reporting public opinion : how the media turns boring polls into biased news

Erik Gahner Larsen, Zoltán Fazekas

Palgrave Macmillan, c2021

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Includes bibliographical references

Description and Table of Contents

Description

This book is about how opinion polls are reported in the media. Opinions polls are not reported in the media as unfiltered numbers, and some opinion polls are not reported at all. This volume demonstrates how opinion polls travel through several stages that eventually turn boring numbers into biased news in the media. The framework offered in this book helps to understand how some polls end up in the news coverage, and which systemic biases abound in the news media reports of opinion polls. In the end, a change narrative will be prominent in the reporting of opinion polls which contributes to what the general public sees and shares. The findings cover journalists, politicians, experts and the public, and how they all share a strong preference for change.

Table of Contents

1. Bringing public opinion to the public: from polls to media coverage.- 2. The four steps of poll coverage: creating, selecting, reporting, and responding.- 3. Explaining how media outlets select opinion polls: the role of change.- 4. Characteristics of opinion poll reporting: creating the change narrative.- 5. Reactions and implications: how do the elite and the public respond to polls?.- 6. Alternatives to opinion polls: no polls, vox pop, poll aggregators and social media.- 7. Conclusion: How the media could report opinion polls.

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