How can a public opinion poll of only 1,500 Americans accurately represent the entire population? Asher demystifies this and other polling issues with clear descriptions, colorful anecdotes, and such up-to-date examples as polls concerning doctor-assisted suicide and NATO expansion. He explains how the wording and ordering of the survey questions, and the interviewer's techniques profoundly affect the response the pollster gets.Public opinion polls are pervasive, influencing discourse and decision-making on practically every issue of public life. Yet they are poorly understood and often misused. Asher explores how polls are constructed, conducted, and interpreted - and what role they have in influencing the very attitudes they measure. He discusses the use of polls in campaign politics and media coverage of public opinion, and he guides readers to make their own judgments.

Polling and the Public: What Every Citizen Should Know

Politics & Social Sciences

Herbert Asher

Politics & Government

CQ Press

<p>Asher’s central objective―to help students become savvy consumers of polls―has only grown in importance as polling data have become more central to public and civic discourse. His trusted and brief guide offers solid grounding on polls: how the media cover them, their use in campaigns and elections, and their interpretation. Methodological aspects of polling are explained simply, in a non-technical fashion.  </p>
<p>Bringing the book fully up to date with new data and scholarship, this edition covers polls in a fragmented media environment and nontraditional approaches to polling, as well as the use of age cohorts to trace public opinion trends over time. </p>

Social Sciences

CQ Press College

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Herbert Asher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Herbert Asher

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Herbert Asher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Polling and the Public: What Every Citizen Should Know

Polling and the Public: What Every Citizen Should Know