· What not to say: “Travelling.”. “Marrying someone rich so I don’t have to work.”. “I haven’t really thought about it.”. 9. What achievement are you most proud of? This is another chance to highlight your suitability for and interest in the course, so try to …
· The most important concept I learned in this course was how to conduct a needs assessment and knowing which assessment method to use and why. A needs assessment is finding the gap between a current result and a desired result.
Assessing your attitudes and values toward this situation is the same as considering how ethics play a role in public speaking. Ethical public speaking is not a one-time event. It does not just occur when you stand to give a 5-minute presentation to your classmates or co-workers. Ethical public speaking is a process.
· The purpose of public opinion polls is to get the opinions of the population regarding an issue or topic.. Public opinion polls are also used to identify issues for resolution, choose candidates for a position, and bring different views or opinions into a political debate.. Some of the ways through which a sample can be conducted include simple random sampling, …
Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of questions and then extrapolating generalities in ratio or within confidence intervals.
public opinion polls. scientific efforts to estimate what an entire group thinks about an issue by asking a smaller sample of the group for its opinion.
It identifies issues for resolution, brings views into political debate, helps choose the political candidates, and gives policymakers some idea of what the voters want.
Public opinion is measured by election results, personal contacts, media reporting, and especially by polls.
Public Opinion Polls. surveys with samples of citizens that are used to estimate the beliefs of the entire population.
Public opinion has 4 basic traits: salience, stability, direction and intensity.
method of choosing respondents randomly. Which of the following characteristics of public opinion polls would make it the most useful in a presidential election? A large random sample of respondents is polled.
Some of the advantages achieved through public opinion polling are the ability to better predict the outcome of elections, determine how the public's views change during a period of time and the gaining of a better understanding of the issues in question by those individuals who are being polled.
To be a public opinion, a view must involve something of general concern and of interest to a significant portion of the people as a whole. In addition, public opinion involves only those views people hold such as things as parties and candidates, taxes, unemployment, foreign policy, etc.
What lessons about public opinion can we draw from The Federalist Papers? American public opinion from the beginning has been treated as a political force to alternatively be shaped, mollified, or exploited. shape and mobilize public opinion on behalf of their causes.
Public opinion polls-most accurate are based on scientific polling techniques.
Polls are taken for the purpose of providing information on an opponent that would lead respondents to vote against that candidate.
Credible public speakers are open and honest with their audiences. Honesty includes telling your audience why you’re speaking (thesis statement) and what you’ll address throughout your speech (preview). For instance, one example of dishonest speech is when a vacation destination offers “complimentary tours and sessions” which are really opportunities for a sales person to pitch a timeshare to unsuspecting tourists. In addition to being clear about the speech goal, honest speakers are clear with audience members when providing supporting information.
For example, a famous Beach Boys song titled Surfin’ USA is actually a note-for-note rendition of a 1958 Chuck Berry song. Though it may be common, the practice of not properly crediting an author for his or her work is unethical. Other examples of deceitful communication include political speeches that intentionally mislead the public. For instance, a former White House press aide, Scott McClellan, claims that President Bush misled the American people about reasons for the Iraqi war. McClellan claims that the President had manipulated sources in order to gain support for the war. Such claims can be damaging to one’s reputation. Thus, responsible public speakers must actively avoid plagiarism and remain committed to honesty and integrity at all costs.
Diversity in public speaking is important when considering both your audience and your speech content. Promoting diversity allows audience members who may be different from the speaker to feel included and can present a perspective to which audience members had not previously been exposed. Speakers may choose a speech topic that introduces a multicultural issue to the audience or can promote diversity by choosing language and visual aids that relate to and support listeners of different backgrounds. Because of the diversity present in our lives, it is necessary to consider how speakers can promote diversity.
There are several speech goals that support this mission. This section will focus on five goals: 1) promote diversity, 2) use inclusive language, 3) avoid hate speech, 4) raise social awareness, and 5) employ respectful free speech.
Studies show that oftentimes students do not cite a source because they’re unsure of how or when to cite a reference.
Did Carley behave unethically? Some would say: “No!” since she shared her own idea. Did Carley speak honestly? Perhaps not because she didn’t account for how her idea took shape— with the help of Stephen and Juan. This scenario is an example of how complicated honesty becomes when speaking to an audience.
Ethical public speaking is not a one-time event. It does not just occur when you stand to give a 5-minute presentation to your classmates or co-workers. Ethical public speaking is a process. This process begins when you begin brainstorming the topic of your speech.
Gallup saw the modern opinion poll as the high-tech equivalent of the New England town meeting, he believed in the collective wisdom of everyday citizens and argued that poll results should be considered as a "mandate from the people." - One person, one vote definition
Nonresponse to polls is a big factor affecting the accuracy of po ll results. In a probability sample, the respondents can be thought of as "self-selecting" into the sample. To the extent that the respondents and non-respondents differ systematically on the survey variables—for example, which candidate they support in an upcoming election--nonresponse can bias the poll results, and that is true even if the initial sample was a probability sample. Lower response rates increase the risk of compound bias due to nonresponse. In a similar way, the accuracy of non-probability samples, such as opt-in samples, can be affected by self-selection. In both types of sampling, if the people who participate in the poll are different from those who do not, results can be biased because of these differences.
Social desirability can affect research by causing the investigated variable to acquire data that is not accurate, or truly representative, of the population. In an experiment, when a participant responds in accordance to social norms, or in a manner in which they believe the researcher would desire rather than how they truly feel, this data is confounded and not accurately representative of the investigated variable. EXAMPLE: A participant taking a survey on feminist attitudes responds in support of feminism when a female researcher is conducting the survey, but is neutral to the idea when a male conducts the survey.
In a probability sample, all persons in the target population have a known chance of being interviewed and, ideally, no one is left out. For example, in a telephone survey based on random digit dialing (RDD) sampling, there is a known probability that a particular telephone number will be selected. The major advantage of a probability-based sample is that we can calculate how likely the findings from the sample accurately represent the full population. That is, we can calculate the margin of sampling error, which is basically the price we pay for not interviewing every member of the population
In a similar way, the accuracy of non-probability samples, such as opt-in samples, can be affected by self-selection. In both types of sampling , if the people who participate in the poll are different from those who do not, results can be biased because of these differences. Random-Digit Dialing (RDD)
Understanding public opinion helps us understand the behavior of politicians.
More interested people tend to have more preformed opinions about politics.
Political interest decreases the number of latent opinions and increases the number of preformed opinions; however, very few people are so well informed that they have a wide range of well thought out opinions.
the voter generally agrees with the expert.
People tend not to think about political issues before being asked.
Individuals' political attitudes can shift based on their life experiences and important events that happen to and around them.
Most people have a range of opinions—some are well formed, and others are formed on the spot.
polls that ask people who they voted for as they leave the election
polling; it is done over a sample of people
The government can easily and substantially influence public opinion.
Incorrect answers. -An overwhelming majority of whites feel that blacks and whites are not treated equally by police. -The number of whites who feel that racism is a big problem has not changed. -The number of whites who feel that racism is a big problem has decreased over time.
Public opinion does not always reflect what is best for the nation.
A person's self-identification is not always consistent with his or her views on specific issues
People sometimes answer pollsters’ questions just to be polite —because they figure they probably ought to have an opinion. That gives pollsters a lot of running room to “manufacture” opinion, especially on issues of narrow rather than wide concern.
Do they ask the right questions? Are they manipulating the wording of questions to get the responses they want? And whom did they interview? Some of the doubts are wrapped up in a mistrust of the political parties, marketers, and media giants that pay for the polls.
To ask the people, with regularity, for their own thoughts strikes us as being both useful and a check on the claims of those in power.
Yet the very fragility and ambiguity of public opinion make the use of polls problematic as a direct, dominant guide to formulating public policy.
When interest groups commission pollsters to ask leading questions to gather “scientific” proof that the public agrees with whatever demand they are making on government, they demean polling and mislead the public. When analysts, sometimes innocently, use poll numbers as a definitive guide to public opinion even on issues to which most people have given little thought, they are writing fiction more than citing fact. When political consultants use information gathered through polling and focus groups to camouflage their clients’ controversial policies with soothing, symbol-laden, and misleading rhetoric, they frustrate democratic deliberation.
Friends of polls could note that the public, however grudgingly, agrees that polls are one tool for gauging public opinion and that leaders should consult public opinion. They could thus “prove” that the public embraces polls. Both ways of looking at the findings would use reality to distort reality.
Even when people have strong views, a single polling question rarely captures those views well. Human beings are complicated and so are their opinions. Using the findings of our example, enemies of polls could cite the public’s doubts to “prove” that the public is against polls. Friends of polls could note that the public, however grudgingly, agrees that polls are one tool for gauging public opinion and that leaders should consult public opinion. They could thus “prove” that the public embraces polls. Both ways of looking at the findings would use reality to distort reality.