Reporting on Beto O’Rourke Puts Personality First
Will Beto O’Rourke’s charisma and knack for social media carry him on a blue wave to the U.S. Senate?
Tag Archives: polling
Your Guide to 2018 Midterm Prediction Coverage
Your guide to accurate and unbiased polling ahead of the 2018 midterms.
Do Journalists Legitimize the Trump Presidency by Reporting Lies? The Case of “Fake” Polls
This is the sixth piece in a series of op-eds about polling in the 2016 presidential election. Read the previous piece here. John E. Newhagen is an associate professor emeritus at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism. President Trump has cited post-election polls showing low
Op-ed: Postmortem – The Polls Weren’t the Problem, Journalism Was
This is the fifth piece in a series of op-eds about polling in the election. Read the previous piece here. John E. Newhagen is an associate professor emeritus at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism. Post-election analysis is awash with commentary and analysis asking how
Op-ed: Media Mistakes Continue After the Election
There is an expectation that the media always needs to be correct. They need to understand the entire country and every situation. Although that is an unrealistic expectation, the expectation that they will do their best is reasonable. In this election, journalists did not do
Despite Innovation, Poll-Based Election Forecasting Was Pretty Much All Wrong
No matter who you voted for, the mainstream consensus is that President-Elect Donald Trump’s Tuesday victory was a huge upset. In the age of digital media, there are a lot of ways you could have watched this unfold. Perhaps you were refreshing a map on
Why Don’t Scandals Move the Needle in Election Polling?
Despite repeated scandals and gaffes on either side of what has been a consistently antagonistic and even volatile election, media coverage of these blunders has done little to shift American voters towards or away from their candidate. To anyone paying attention to this presidential election
Op-ed: A Cautionary Note About the Role of Emotion in Understanding the Polls
This is the fourth piece in a series of op-eds about polling in the election. Read the previous piece here. John E. Newhagen is an associate professor emeritus at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism. The thing that makes me especially wary of this year’s
Op-ed: Rethinking the Polls. Why many polling stories mislead readers and viewers – and why that is really important in a scary election.
This is the first in a series of op-eds about polling in the election. John E. Newhagen is an associate professor emeritus at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism. Most polling stories go straight to the horserace – they focus on who
Polling and the Sensationalism of Election Season
Over the course of a poll’s life – its production, analysis, and consumption – there are circumstances that can reduce its value. Not only are there are so many variables that contribute to an “efficient” poll, but the reporting of polls (specifically, candidate election polls)