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Internet Polling Misrepresents us All by James Mason Internet Polling is Misrepresenting us All. One ability of the Internet is that the server side can ask questions of the user side. At this time in history, another ability is to serve to those who can afford the new technology almost exclusively. Any statistician, who is not working for the Republican party, would tell you the polls are highly unscientific almost to the point of being completely inaccurate. Moreover, paying attention to them “sets us up” for a dangerous precedent. In the most recent election in the U.S. 36% of eligible voters, used the vote. An active minority that has determined many of our futures. Consider that there exists among us citizens, some among those 36%, who will allow their own decision to be swayed by what they perceive as public opinion. The television news companies know this: that these voters do not find politics interesting, don't follow world events, don't have the time to read newspapers every day, and welcome snippets of information about "what the others are thinking." They'll watch condensed and fluffy television news almost exclusively, and the recent trend in television news is to announce the presence of the station's or network's web site and "on-line poll." The anchor person will tell us the results of the poll with a straight face, as if it has merit. Until there are Internet terminals on the street corners, and terminals in every home, this very unscientific polling process should be shunned. Ignore them. Get mad. Fax, phone, write, call and email, the news agency that has the ignorance to announce the findings of an internet "public" polling. Tell them they "must state the biased inaccuracy of the poll," before using them for drama, news flair, and to impress us with their modernization. |
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