anyone else called by nbc news for national poll

[faithnotgreed]

i was just called for nbc news poll
they first asked if i thought that the nation was right track/wrong track
i asked if there was a third category of "insane" (she laughed) but then i said wrong track

then she asks if im of hispanic background
my age
and my race

then she says i am screened out because of race
but that i may be called later today for another poll

after we hung up i realized she had first asked me right track/wrong track
then my race etc

if youre screening for race why ask that question first followed by race

hmmmm

[blossomstar]

1. I stopped having any faith in polls after the 2000 election....

sorry, but polls are just whatever * wants them to be....

[faithnotgreed]

2. so true....

[melissinha]

3. market research is funky

they have to search for the appropriate people to work a poll .. they obviously wanted opinions of hispanics....

but it would be best if they just polled, showed that the poll included proportionate amount to census data and not waste their money calling you and not using your info!

[faithnotgreed]

4. sure - but why not ask race first if that is supposedly your screen point

or age or whatever
but why first ask right track wrong track followed by the screen that you say youre looking for

it is just all too intentional
what would happen if i had said right track

i certainly understand polling firms mix in odd questions - mostly for a certain if not subtle direction

[OneTwentyoNine]

10. I could give then phone number exchanges or zip codes....

of people to call for a poll here in Wichita and Bush would STILL garner close to a 60% approval rating. Most anyone else in a Repuke State could do the same. I've always wondered how "scientific" these scientific polls really are.

[snippy]

5. The right track/wrong track question might be asked of all respondents

and then more detailed questions might be asked of smaller groups of respondents based on race. If the pollster needed responses from 400 whites, 200 blacks, and 300 hispanics, they would end the call with a member of a group for which the needed sample size already has been satisfied. An example of a question a pollster might do this with would be whether or to what degree the respondents thought that race was a factor in the federal government's response to hurricane Katrina.

[faithnotgreed]

6. again snippy i just fail to understand why the one question

then the sub question of race

can you explain that methodology because i clearly dont understand it

[snippy]

7. I will try.

Let's say that the pollster wanted to know how different racial groups felt about specific questions, such as "is the country on the right track or the wrong track?" and "did race play a factor in the government's response to hurricane Katrina?" The results for such a poll would be reported for each question for all respondents and for each racial group. For example, the poll results might say that 25% of all respondents say the country is on the right track, but only 15% of blacks and 20% of hispanics say so. The results would also provide various other answers and percentages for the other questions.

In order to have a statistically significant sample from each racial group, a certain minimum number of respondents from each group is required. The size of a statistically significant sample is determined by a formula and depends on the size of the group and the desired margin of error and level of confidence. For example, the pollster may need at least 1,000 total respondents of which at least 200 are black and 400 are hispanic. After the poll has been conducted for a while, the required number of total respondents may be reached, or nearly reached, but the required number of blacks or hispanics is still too low to be statistically significant. In that case the pollsters will terminate early any questioning of respondents who are not in the group for which additional responses are needed. This is done mostly to save time and money and to focus only on obtaining the remaining needed respondents.

So your response to the initial question may be included in the poll results for total respondents and for your racial group on the right track/wrong track question, but not for any of the other questions because your racial group was already adequately represented in the poll.

All of the numbers in my response were made up and do reflect any attempt at statistical accuracy or significance.

[faithnotgreed]

11. i do understand that

my question is why ask one important question as your lead (right track wrong track) and then ask your race question

i know they need a balanced ratio of respondents
what i dont get is why ask a loaded question right off then ask the screener question

why not just ask that first
or if you dont want to offend or tip your hand as the pollster then why ask a question first that can be perceived (by me anyway) as potentially the real screener and immediately follow it with what you say is the screen question
because i answered wrong track then did not fit what was said to be the screen question then i was told they had their quota
i would think it should be a more benign topic initially rather than something that could be thought as your real screener (again by those like me)

anyway im not sure what to make of it
the same woman called me back for this nbc/wsj poll so i asked her about this and the she was nice enough to have a small discussion about it but ultimately she wasnt sure

anyway it was an extensive poll and covered many topics
i look forward to the results possibly tomorrow

thank you for talking this out with me
i dont know methodology but i do know it didnt feel right

[Pharlo]

8. No, but I did get selected for a 'Nightline' survey being conducted

on this coming weeks programming.

[faithnotgreed]

12. thats interesting

this was my first experience with a national poll

how extensive was the nightline poll and when should it be out

[Pharlo]

14. I don't know yet...

I received an initial survey asking general questions about ABC news programs I watch. After 3 questions they became Nightline specific - asking how frequently I watch it, how long I've been watching, what my age group, income bracket, and education level are. Then, they asked if I would be interested in taking more extensive survey based upon viewings from the week of 09/12/05 thru 09/16/05. I said I would be interested. So, I could probably give you much more information about the direction of the questions at the end of the week

[faithnotgreed]

15. i thought nightline was cancelled but glad to hear they are polling

about it as long as its done properly

let us know...

on edit: wonder what topics they are covering and if they are running something special this week that they want to get feedback on

[nolabels]

9. Progressives need to do their own poll OR anti-poll

To extinguish the farce that polls really ever determine much of anything.

If enough people could be cobbled together some witty math major could probably show how and why mass sections of of people are being ignored and exploited by these contemptuous corporate serving monstrosities

[faithnotgreed]

13. cant argue with your second point.... ignored and exploited no doubt

and of course corrupt and biased

but this poll seemed pretty ok
some was tilted but overall it was ok - at least not a push poll