Posts Tagged ‘journalism’
Tuesday, January 24th, 2012
Election years are a perfect time to learn about (and brush up on) the fundamentals of survey research. Not only are the airwaves inundated with public opinion polling, but methodological experts are called upon to talk about developments and current best practices as new technologies and methods become central to measuring consumer and public opinion and behavior.
This week the Poynter Institute is offering a webinar of particular interest for PR professionals, whether or not you care about political polls. We also recommend it for any marketing professional because this type of polling is an exemplar of what all marketing research tries to achieve in measuring what people think and what they are likely to do. (more…)
Tags: data quality, journalism, Market Research, media, news, omnibus, public opinion, Public Polls, Public Relations
Posted in Public Polls, Public Relations, Resources and Recommendations | No Comments »
Thursday, December 29th, 2011
Even if you are not involved in political polling, it is worth paying attention to the methods and best practices of political pollsters. One reason is that few other areas of research offer a way to completely validate one’s methods. Pollsters are using sampling and survey methods to predict the behaviors of a much larger population. Then in just one day that population behaves, we get a near-perfect count of exactly how they behaved, and we know whether the methods worked.
Several industry colleagues have recently been debating the merits of calculating and reporting “margins of error” in political polling, and pointed us to some surprising data from The New York Times: (more…)
Tags: journalism, public opinion, Public Polls, Sampling, statistics, survey
Posted in Market Research, Methods & Tools, Omnibus Surveys, Public Polls, Sampling | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 9th, 2011
One powerful way to gain visibility and credibility in your marketplace is by sponsoring survey research that documents problems and solutions in areas where you have expertise. To be successful, it requires (1) rigorous research carefully designed to uncover the right topics, and (2) savvy PR work that uses data to tell a credible and compelling story.
The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and the American Statistical Association have just published a handy guide for PR professionals that outlines best practices for using, interpreting and reporting statistics in press releases and other PR materials. Some of those best practices include the following: (more…)
Tags: communication, journalism, media, news, omnibus, Public Relations, statistics, stories
Posted in Omnibus Surveys, Presenting Research, Public Relations, Turning Data into Stories | No Comments »
Thursday, September 29th, 2011
Is it true that the Associated Press refuses to carry stories from online surveys? Yes, as odd as that seems nowadays. But news media face a difficult problem given how easy it is to conduct biased public opinion polling, especially now with online panels and social networks. So some news organizations like the Associated Press (AP), The New York Times, and ABC News have developed guidelines that specify for a survey or public opinion poll to be valid and reliable, it must be conducted by telephone.
(more…)
Tags: Data Collection, Internet, journalism, omnibus, Online Surveys, phone surveys, public opinion, Public Polls, Public Relations, Sampling
Posted in Data Collection, Omnibus Surveys, Online Surveys, Public Polls, Public Relations, Sampling | No Comments »
Thursday, May 26th, 2011
A new study presented by two professors from Harvard University and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst was probably one of the liveliest and potentially disruptive presentations at least week’s annual meeting of the American Association of Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) in Phoenix.
Why? Because their research challenges the beliefs of many AAPOR-ites who disregard most online research as being theoretically indefensible since it is not based on probability sampling. The research presented was based on parallel surveys conducted last year, designed to allow careful comparison of three survey modes: (more…)
Tags: bias, census, Data Collection, Internet, journalism, media, news, Online Surveys, phone surveys, public opinion, Public Polls, Public Relations, Sampling
Posted in Data Collection, Methods & Tools, Online Surveys, Public Polls, Public Relations, Sampling | No Comments »
Thursday, April 28th, 2011
As much as we love numbers, we find ourselves often advising clients against using numeric scales in their surveys. A numeric scale is any response format that asks people to give a number within a certain range to indicate the strength of their feeling or opinion. The insanely popular survey question used to calculate Net Promoter Scores is a good example:
“How likely is it that you would recommend Acme Solutions to a friend or colleague? Please answer on a scale from zero to ten, where zero means not at all likely, five is a neutral score, and ten means extremely likely.”
There are many good reasons to use numeric scales and many types of research for which numeric scales are optimal. The NPS scale is good because it has eleven points with meaningful endpoints and a meaningful midpoint. Research shows that scales like this can be highly reliable and valid, with sufficient variability to allow for sophisticated statistical modeling.
But if your objective is to use survey data for marketing materials, public relations, news releases, or white papers, numeric scales make things difficult. They are not easy to summarize in words, and if you want to use charts that tell quick, compelling stories, you will end up having to do something like this:
A Poor Fit: Pie Charts and Numeric Scales
(more…)
Tags: charts, communication, Data Collection, journalism, media, news, omnibus, Public Relations, stories, Survey Design, visualizing data
Posted in Charts and Data Visualization, Data Collection, Omnibus Surveys, Presenting Research, Public Relations, Survey Design, Survey Tips, Turning Data into Stories | No Comments »
Thursday, November 11th, 2010
One way you can make a research report really pop is to carefully select and edit quotes from the people involved in the study. For qualitative research, that means pulling quotes from transcripts of in-depth interviews, focus groups, online bulletin boards, social media, etc. For survey research, it means pulling quotes from open-ended questions that were recorded verbatim.
Editing is key, however. Who wants to read something in the halting, choppy, in-eloquent speech that most of us use in talking? A killer quote is one that is short, direct, pithy, and on point. Achieving this requires a journalistic standard for presenting quotes. What does that mean? Here are some steps: (more…)
Tags: Focus Groups, journalism, Market Research, media, open-ends, qualitative research., stories
Posted in Focus Groups, Presenting Research, Turning Data into Stories | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 25th, 2010
We are strong advocates of using surveys for public relations outreach. Commissioning surveys that answer interesting questions to help drive news stories and other types of communication can build a credible foundation so that journalists and other audiences take note and listen. But we are not fans of silly surveys that rely on outlandish, sexy, or clever comparisons designed primarily to get quick flashes of attention and media hits.
There are three tiers of survey research common in public relations, only two of which can truly optimize your PR: (more…)
Tags: journalism, media, news, omnibus, Public Relations, research, trust
Posted in Public Relations | No Comments »
Thursday, July 15th, 2010
Clients tell us that one of the biggest challenges they face is writing great research reports. There is the overwhelming difficulty of turning data into stories — making sense of volumes of data without losing the big picture or the details. And there is the difficulty of truly communicating research so that it is heard, understood, believed, and ultimately used.
We were reminded of the importance of communication and writing research for multiple audiences from Eric Zorn’s recent column in the Chicago Tribune, from which we quote: (more…)
Tags: communication, journalism, media, Public Relations, qualitative research., research reports, stories
Posted in Presenting Research, Public Relations, Turning Data into Stories | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
Two paragraphs can be exceptionally thought provoking when they get right to the point. In a simple introduction to the New York Times Book Review last week, the editors highlighted two ideas about statistics and stories that we want to share. (more…)
Tags: communication, journalism, Market Research, statistics, stories
Posted in Market Research, Presenting Research, Turning Data into Stories | No Comments »
