Power, Polling, & Public Opinion

This is the first of the Social Justice Assignments built for this course. Read through the following questions, then listen to the following podcast:

Now and Then; Power, Polling, & Public Opinion.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/now-then/id1567665859?i=1000585461899 Links to an external site. 

The answers to the question (with the exception of the first one) can all be found in the podcast itself, but you are welcome to do independent research on any of these topics if you so desire.

Some information about the podcast hosts. Heather Cox Richardson and Joanne Freeman are U.S. Historians specializing in the Revolution and the formation of the country and in the Civil War and Reconstruction era's of our country. This particular podcast focuses on the evolution of political polling in the U.S, both in the method and the purpose behind it. It is one of the best, accurate, and entertaining descriptions of it I have encountered. It is 47 minutes long and it does include ads which you can skip.

If you enjoyed this brief romp into U.S. History, I encourage you to browse some of their other episodes. I have learned so much about our history and how much of it effects what is happening today.

Questions:

1. What is your current perception of public polling? Do you rely on them (in part, perhaps) when gauging public opinion? How much do you pay attention to polling results in the news?
2. What stories or events were familiar to you? (You have heard of it before, even if you weren’t aware of all of the details) List no more than one story/event.
3. What stories or events were not familiar to you? (This was the first you heard of this event/story) List no more than one story/event.
4. When did the opinion polling begin to become what we consider to be more scientific? Who started the change? In what ways did the changes give us the more scientific polling?
5. In the aftermath of the Dewy vs. Truman presidential election, what lesson did some pollsters learn?
6. According to the podcast hosts, how are political polls being used today? Does this change your original perception of political or public opinion polls?
7. How can you navigate this current polling climate? Are you going to ignore them all and “all go and vote?” Are you going to seek out the “good political polling organizations” as mentioned in the podcast and rely chiefly on them for public opinion information? Are you going to do something completely different?

Once you have the answers to your questions, post them in the following discussion. After you have posted, you will need to reply to another post, responding to their answers to receive full credit for this assignment. This is how we will do every Social Justice Assignment throughout the semester. Discussion: Power, Polling, & Public Opinion Answers

You can find a different link to the podcast recording, references, and the podcast transcript here: https://cafe.com/now-and-then/power-polling-public-opinion/ Links to an external site.