"You can ask great questions, tough questions, and you might not always get an answer."  This is one of the points Mike Gousha made during his discussion in Journalism 4953.  

In class, Gousha also explained the role that journalists play in everyday society.  Gousha self-describes as a practicer of "old school journalism."  New school journalists are more concerned with asking questions that will start an argument but old school journalists ask tough questions with the goal of creating a good and informative discussion. 

He also spoke about the importance that journalism has in keeping people informed.

"People make intelligent decisions when they are presented with good information," Gousha stated.

Listening to his discussion really inspired me and my own work as a journalist.  Gousha was able to stay focused despite the ever-changing field of journalism and give people quality information without compromising his values. Currently, he hosts two different shows called "On the Issues" and "Upfront"where he asks politicans tough and relevant questions while attempting to be unbiased.  Someday I hope that I can apply these principles to my own line of work.

Listening to Charles Franklin in Journalism 4953 really made me have a greater appreciation for pollsters and statisticians.  During out discussion we spoke about the statistics behind a small sampling size and why a seemingly small sample can be representative of the population. 

This concept has always been particularly baffling to me.  How can a group of 700 people be representative of the entire state or how can 1,000 people be representative of the entire nation?  The funny thing that Franklin pointed out in his discussion was that when a doctor takes a sample of blood from our body he/she will only take a small vial.  Do we consider the vial of blood to be unrepresentative and instead suggest that the doctor take a gallon?  Of course not.  Similarly, a small piece of the population can represent the whole but the key is that the population has to be representative and the poll has to be unbiased and it takes a proportional sample from each demographic group in the population.

An example Franklin used was taking a spoon full of soup.  If the  seasonings in the soup are evenly mixed and you take a spoonfull to taste then it will give you an accurate sampling of the whole soup.  But if you take a spoonfull of soup where the seasoning is not well mixed the spoon will not be a good reflection of how the whole soup is going to taste.   In polling, if the sample is not evenly mixed throughout the population then it will be like the unmixed seasoning and the sample will not represent the population.

Although Charles Franklin's lecture did not make me jump out of my seat and want to become a statistician, he did help simplify the worlds of polling and statistics for me.  His simple analagies really made me better understand the thinking behind polling and I definitely appreciate polls and statistics more than I did before.

Polls are everywhere. If you walk to the library on a sunny day at Marquette you are likely to run into someone trying to take a poll.  However, prior to this semester I knew very little about polling.  I was aware that polling helped bring to light the opinions of the public but aside from that I was very uninformed.  This year in my American Politics class and in my Journalism 4053 class I have come to realize that there is so much more to polling.  There are many factors to take into consideration when conducting a poll and as The New York Times stated, "not all polls are created equal."  

When Professor Herbert Lowe announced that Charles Franklin, a specialist in statistical methods, elections and public opinion, was coming to speak at our class I was very curious about what he would say about polling.  

The biggest question I think I will have for Franklin is how does he himself determine which polls are reliable enough to be sighted.  His blog on Feb. 15 suggested that polls, even ones that appear slightly less credible, should still be sighted if the data follows the normal trend.  This puzzles me. Why should news outlet sight polls that aren't considered to be highly credible even if the poll accurately reflects opinion?  Won't that result in the news station losing credibility as well?

I am anxious to hear Franklin speak and learn more about public opinion polls so that I can use them in my future career as a journalist.

Once again, the Chicago Tribune did not fail to impress in its political coverage.  Super Tuesday became a hot topic on the Tribune's Elections page as well as on its homepage on Tuesday night. The election page had graphics that were constantly updated on the status of each of the candidates by state.  

The Tribune also amped up its social media content.  There was a constant minute-by-minute update of the election results.  Unfortunately, most of the tweets came from the Associate Press (AP) but it was still very impressive that the Tribune was increasing its social media usage as well as keeping its readers well informed.

By Wednesday the homepage no longer focused on the political frenzy but the national election section still had stories related to the primaries.  A graphic was added from the AP which pictured a map giving the results of each state.  But understandably, by Wednesday, story content began to shift a bit.  Stories became more focused on President Barack Obama's reactions to the primaries and looking to the future of the elections.