Saturday, December 30, 2006

Quantitative methods quiz!

Some more cutting-edge participatory journalism from the Fox cousins. For extra credit:

1) Read the survey question carefully. What does a "yes" answer mean?
2) List at least three things that a "no" answer might mean.
3) What does "not sure" mean about the respondent's views on the death penalty?
4) Is anything in the item unquestionably true?
5) Would the results be valid if the poll followed "scientific" methods?

Catch 'Your World' at 4 p.m. ET for more on this topic:
Should the U.S. save millions in tax dollars by having a shorter time period for prisoners on Death Row, like Iraq?
Yes
No
Not sure

SUBMIT VOTE VIEW RESULTS
This is not a scientific poll.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I had an almost violent reaction to an insta-poll on our Web site asking if a high-ranking NASCAR exec had been given special treatment by police. He was being followed by a woman who called police and said he was driving erratically/possibly drunk. Police arrived at his home after he had been there for 20 minutes and did not give him a sobriety test. One of the poll options was something along the lines of, "It seems odd to me that they didn't give him a field test."

I tried to explain to the Web Master that there's a very simple reason why they didn't -- he had already made it home, and could have chugged a fifth in the time they had gotten there, and it's 100% inadmissible in any court. His response: Well, it's what people are thinking, regardless of the legalities.

Heaven forfend we disabuse them of their incorrect notions. That'd be, like, giving INFORMATION or some shit, dude. Too heavy, man.

1:03 PM, January 02, 2007  

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