Push Poll Research Paper

Push Poll or Real Deal: How to Know You Are Not Being Spun

According to the article on Wikipedia a push poll is an “interactive marketing technique”. Conversely the definition of a push poll on Pollster.com a push poll is a “telemarketing smear masquerading as a poll”. Two seemingly different definitions which leads to question how does the average person know when a pollster calls if it is a legitimate poll or a push poll. Logic tells me most people do not know what a push poll is and therefore would never know if they are victims. Here are some identifiers of a push poll compared to a real poll, according to the Wikipedia article titled, “Push Poll” and the Pollster.com article titled, “So What *Is* A Push Poll?”. First, push polls
In a push poll the intent is to communicate to as many constituents as possible while a real poll would utilize a random selection process and much smaller sample size. According to the October 26, 2006 article titled, Tales of a Push Pollster at www.motherjones.com, a polling firm stated that they can make up to three and a half million calls per day due to the advancement of modern technology and automated calling. Secondly, a push poll generally speaking, will only have a few questions whereas a legitimate poll will have more questions. Another tell-tale sign is that a push poll questions will be more one-sided versus asking opinions for either sides of an issue or on both candidates. A legitimate poll will most likely conclude with questions about the respondents’ demographic information. Another identifier of a legitimate poll is that the pollster will identify themselves and the most likely will identify the sponsor of the poll. Lastly, the information collected in a push poll is not analyzed or examined. In June 2007, the American Association for Public Opinion Research, issued a statement on push
I believe that the moment I would start to feel or think negative thoughts about a candidate or issue, is when I would ask myself if this is a legitimate poll or is this an attempt to persuade me to think a certain way. The question of whether or not push polling will continue will soon vanish as technology starts advancing. The way polling is done is changing before our eyes. Instead of calling homes in the middle of the dinner hour, polls can be published on webpages and social media. Constituents can elect to participate in the poll versus getting caught on the phone at dinner hour because there is no caller ID. In the same respect, negative campaigning can still occur through these vehicles just more likely to have a traceable trail to the ‘who-done-it’. Whereas with telephone polling, it is much less obvious of who is driving the