Problems Found in Reporting USA Today Pre-Election Polls

Abstract

During the 2004 presidential campaign, USA Today demonstrated several lapses in reporting polling data, including reporting the sampling error as an actual difference or change.

Regular Readers Expect More Polling Details

“…8 Still others point out instances of misinterpretation of methodological information, such as misinterpretation of sampling error, in reports about polls. 9 In their content analysis of nine prominent broadcast and print media outlets' coverage about Social Security and other entitlements, Jacobs and Shapiro noted the scarcity of methodological details and substantive interpretation in reports about polls, remarking that "polls were slipped into stories as a quick frame of reference or hook; they were the journalistic equivalent of a drive-by shooting." 10 Public opinion organizations have adopted standards to which members and others who conduct polls should adhere when reporting poll results.…”

The de-emphasis of sampling error in coverage of presidential approval ratings

“…Some studies have questioned the news media's use of approval poll data in stories that cover "horse race elections" 7 and exit polls. 8 Hickman 9 observed that the news media tend to devote an inordinate amount of attention to marginal changes in polling data, and Reavy 10 and Burns 11 found that news media coverage of pre-election polls seem to emphasize changes or differences that could be explained by sampling error. Patterson 12 argued that these issues, combined with an over-reliance on polls, diminish the overall quality of journalistic coverage of U.S. elections.…”