This past weekend, the smart folks who try to figure out what the hell we’re thinking at any given moment gathered in Toronto for the annual conference of the American Association for Public Opinion Research. The jobs of pollsters and journalists don’t have a perfect overlap — mostly, we like anecdotal ledes more — but we’re all in the business of understanding the opinions of citizens and seeing if the information they receive meets their needs as civic actors. …
Here are a few of the items that piqued my interest — some relating to media consumption, some relating to how we should report about polls, some relating to broader information trends. Many of the underlying ideas aren’t new, but they’re an excellent reminder to be aware of how our eyes, ears, and notebooks can sometimes deceive us. CONT.
Joshua Benton, Nieman Journalism Lab