CBS News Poll Methodologies
CBS News conducts surveys
by telephone of anyone 18 years or older living in the continental United
States. The sample of participants is random and is not chosen based on race,
age or any other characteristic. In order to conduct the surveys, CBS gathers
telephone numbers through a random search done entirely by the computer. This
process is a probability sample called “random-digit
dialing”, which gives every home an equal chance of being called by
their interviewers, provided they have a landline. In general, CBS talks to
1,000 people out of the random sample they have determined.
Strengths
• All people in target population have an equal chance of being
interviewed
• You can easily calculate the margin of sampling error
• Most accurate form of survey research
Weaknesses
• Non-response bias can be a problem
• Response rate calculations can be imprecise
• Not everyone has a landline. People who just have a cell phone
can be systematically excluded.
Why is this methodology
important?
Random-digit dialing is
important in election opinion polling because it is has the best chance of
capturing the real opinions of others in the population. The respondents are
not chosen based on their political views or any other characteristics, which
is important to understand when dealing with political polls. Finally, CBS
pollsters weight their sample according to Census demographics to try to get an
accurate, representative sample.
by Lauren Cuddy
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