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.



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    I am a journalism and writing intensive English major in the Diederich College of Communication at Marquette University. 

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