Description
The methodologies used to study public opinion are now in flux. The primary polling method of the last half-century, the telephone survey, is rapidly becoming obsolete as a data collection method. At the same time, new methods of contacting potential respondents and obtaining their response are appearing, providing a variety of options for scholars and practitioners. Generally speaking, we are moving from a polling world that was largely interviewer driven over the phone and face-to-face to predominantly interviewer driven self-administered poll environments, New methods of data collection, however, must still deal with fundamental questions to polling methodology and total survey error including sampling, selection bias, non-response error, poststratification weighting, and questionnaire design features.The Oxford Handbook on Polling and Survey Methods brings together a unique mixture of academics and practitioners, from various backgrounds, academic disciplines, and experiences. In some sense, this is reflective of the interdisciplinary nature of the polling and survey industry: polls and surveys are widely used in academia, government, and the private sector. Designing, implementing, and analyzing high quality, accurate, and cost-effective polls and surveys requires a combination of skills and methodological perspectives. Despite the well-publicized issues that have cropped up in recent political polling, a great deal is known today about how to collect high quality polling and survey data even in complex and difficult environments. Divided into four main sections, the Handbook draws on the existing research and explores data collection methods. It then addresses data analysis and the methods available for combining polling data with other types of data. The next section covers analytic issues, including the new approaches to studying public opinion (ie social media, the analysis of open-ended questions using text analytic tools, and data imputation). The final section focuses on the presentation of polling results, an area where there is a great deal of innovation.A comprehensive overview of the topic, this volume highlights current polling trends provides ideas for the development of new and better approaches for measuring, modeling, and visualizing public opinion and social behavior.
Table of Contents
Introduction1. Survey DesignTotal Survey ErrorHerb WeisbergLongitudinal Surveys: Issues and OpportunitiesSunshine Hillygus and Steve SnellThe Advantages and Disadvantages of ModeLonna Rae Atkeson and Alex AdamsTaking the Study of Political Behavior OnlineStephen Ansolabehere and Brian ShaffnerSampling for Studying Context: Traditional Surveys and New DirectionsJames GimpelQuestionnaire ScienceDaniel Oberski2. Data CollectionExit Polling Today and What the Future May HoldAnthony SalvantoSampling Hard to Reach Populations: Lessons from Sampling Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)Prakash Adkihari and Lisa BryantReaching Beyond Low-Hanging Fruit: Surveying Low-Incidence Populations, Justinlamazoo CollegeYoussef Chouhound and Jane JunnSurvey Research in the Arab WorldLindsay BensteadThe Language-Opinion ConnectionEfren O. Perez3. Analysis and presentationCausal Inference with Complex Survey Designs: Generating Population Estimates Using Survey WeightsInes Levin and Betsy SinclairCross-National Surveys and the Comparative Study of Electoral SystemsJeffrey A. Karp and Jack VowlesAggregating Survey Data to Estimate Subnational Public OpinionPaul BracePublic Opinion at the State and Local LevelChris WarshawUsing Graphical Displays for Presenting Polling Data and Analytic ResultsWilliam Jacoby and Saundra SchneiderGraphical Visualization of Polling ResultsSusanna Makela, Yajuan Si, and Andrew GelmanMeasuring Group Consciousness: Actions Speak Louder than WordsKim ProctorIssues in Polling Methodologies: Inference and UncertaintyJeff Gill and Jonathan Homola4. New frontiersSurvey Experiments: Managing the Methodological Costs and BenefitsYanna Krupnikov and Blake FindleyUsing Qualitative Methods in a Quantitative Survey Research AgendaKinsey Gimbel and Jocelyn NewsomeIntegration of Contextual Data: Challenges and OpportunitiesArmando RazoTwitter and Measuring Public OpinionJonathan Nagler et al.Expert Surveys as a Measurement ToolCherie MaestasThe Rise of Poll Aggregation and Election ForecastingNatalie Jackson
