Survey researchers have become interested in big data because it offers potential solutions to problems we’re experiencing with traditional methods. Much of the focus so far has been on social media (e.g., Tweets), but sensors (wearable tech) and the internet Cloud Photoof things (IoT) are producing an increasingly rich, complex, […] Read more »
Mobile Technologies for Conducting, Augmenting and Potentially Replacing Surveys
Public opinion research is entering a new era, one in which traditional survey research may play a less dominant role. … The rapid adoption of smartphones and ubiquity of social media are interconnected trends which may provide researchers with new data collection tools and alternative sources of information to augment […] Read more »
Mobile Technology in Politics More Potential Than Reality
Although most Americans now own mobile communication devices or otherwise have access to the Internet, no more than 23% have used them for a variety of political interactions. These results suggest that the potential use of mobile communication for connecting voters and potential voters to politics has yet to be […] Read more »
More online Americans say they’ve experienced a personal data breach
As news of large-scale data breaches and vulnerabilities grows, new findings from the Pew Research Center suggest that growing numbers of online Americans have had important personal information stolen and many have had an account compromised. CONT. Mary Madden, Pew Read more »
Tracking public opinion with biased polls
The traditional gold standard of polling is probability sampling, where you contact people selected at random from a list of the population. But probability sampling isn’t so great anymore. With response rates in the 10 percent range, there is concern that the select group of people who happen to respond […] Read more »
Growing Doubts About Big Data
There’s quite a kerfuffle going on in the world of big data, with a range of prominent articles in the past month suggesting it’s not the analytical holy grail it’s been made out to be. Taken together, these pieces suggest the start of a serious rethink of what big data […] Read more »