Illusions of Poll Data--Manufacturing and Manipulating Public Opinion
Channel: trogar1971
Date: 2013-05-07

Welcome to "Shredding Illusions to Find Realities" and I'm James Sanders.

This segment is Illusions of Poll Data -- Manufacturing and Manipulating Public Opinion

Recently, I saw a poll on FaceBook from the Ed Show. This poll suggested that 78% agreed with the poll. The problem most miss, is what does this percentage really mean? Most people view a poll and jump to some basic conclusions, most thinking it's a realistic representation of American public opinion. However, when one digs deeper into such poles, one can clearly see the illusion presented by lamestream media. The inherent problem with stuff like this is that no matter where the poll appears, most seemingly jump to the same conclusion without a realistic understanding of what they really represent.

This particular poll suggested a 78% approval. It did suggest that it was a viewer poll, so I'll at least give the Ed Show credit for that. When one looks at population and actual viewership, one will find that this poll really doesn't tell much of anything, and definitely is NOT an accurate representation of the American public opinion on the topic. A bit of research reveals that the Ed Show has 200,000 viewers. [1] Based upon that information, some simple math deduces that 156,000 agree, while only 44,000 disagree. It also suggests that these numbers are based upon the age group of 25-54 "because that is where the advertising money goes for news programming".

To keep this fair, let's look at USA census data for 2011, which we find on the USA Census Bureau website. According to their downloadable XLS, and only using the 25-54 age groups, a little math deduces that total population of the US for that age group is 127,136,655.[2]

Based upon these findings and math, what does it tell us? First let's look at the 200,000 MSNBC Ed Show viewers as compared to total USA population. As a percentage, only 0.0015731104456067% of the total USA population of that age group even watches the Ed Show on MSNBC.  Not such great USA population representation is it? If not even 1% of the population watches the Ed Show, then that should pretty much tell you what that supposed 78% approval means, and that's giving Ed the benefit of the doubt that it's real numbers from a real poll of their viewers. I don't think we need to say much more about this data trying to suggest to people that they're not normal if they don't agree with the 78%, given that 78% isn't even honestly 1% of total population.

Moving onto the psychological side of this, there are three potential viewers. Those that agree. Those that disagree. Those that couldn't care less. However, it's clearly designed to evoke an emotional reaction given the content matter. Those that agree are justified because they are part of the "in group", the "normal group" because mob rules say it's OK. Those that don't agree are not part of those groups. If they wish to conform, then they'll feel "different" because mob rule says they should think otherwise. Peer pressure and manipulation are the tools of the conditioners so that we feel awkward or different for being original or against the status quo. Most of us have at least spent 12 years within the system of conformity, known as the school system, that pushed us to conform, fit in, or risk peer pressure and punishment. They use the same tools on adults through media instead of schools. This is simple critical thought here.

Sources:
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/27/business/media/msnbc-is-close-to-falling-to-third-place-in-cable-news-ratings.html?_r=0 - MSNBC Is Close to Falling to Third Place in Cable News Ratings By BILL CARTER
[2] http://www.census.gov/popest/data/national/asrh/2011/tables/NC-EST2011-01.xls - Annual Estimates of the Resident Population by Sex and Selected Age Groups for the United States: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2011