Using available information on methodology to report more comprehensively would be a good start
09 May 2024 - 18:10
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The first step is for political journalists to improve their understanding of polls and polling, and to commit to only reporting polls with the necessary information to understand the limitations.
If you compare the press releases accompanying poll results with the media reports on them, much of the information on methodology is in the press release but not in the story. So reporting more comprehensively would be a good start.
I am sure pollsters would be only too happy to explain how they develop their turnout scenarios and how they assign undecided respondents, if asked. But I suspect they seldom are.
Anthony Hazell Via BusinessLIVE
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
LETTER: Journalists need to understand polling
Using available information on methodology to report more comprehensively would be a good start
Your editorial opinion refers (“Opinion poll perils and the need for transparency”, May 8).
The first step is for political journalists to improve their understanding of polls and polling, and to commit to only reporting polls with the necessary information to understand the limitations.
If you compare the press releases accompanying poll results with the media reports on them, much of the information on methodology is in the press release but not in the story. So reporting more comprehensively would be a good start.
I am sure pollsters would be only too happy to explain how they develop their turnout scenarios and how they assign undecided respondents, if asked. But I suspect they seldom are.
Anthony Hazell
Via BusinessLIVE
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
EDITORIAL: Opinion poll perils and the need for transparency
MARI HARRIS: The inner workings of opinion polls
JONNY STEINBERG: Polling ‘experts’ need to be regulated — and come clean
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