Other Public Opinion Bloggers

In addition to websites containing poll reports and other public opinion data, other people's blog posts might serve as a useful source for your blogging activities: You can follow their links to poll reports you might not have noticed otherwise; you can respond to them (either in their comments or in posts of your own); and you can use many of them as models of good blogging style and etiquette.

Brendan Nyhan, for example, is a political scientist and media critic who frequently blogs about public opinion, as in these exemplary posts about a CNN poll about President Obama's place of birth and the recent Pew Research Center survey results regarding American's beliefs about Obama's religion (as we discussed briefly on the first day of class).

The Monkey Cage is a group blog by political scientists who post on a variety of subjects, often including public opinion. Recently, it's had public opinion-related posts about taxation, illegal immigrants and birthright citizenship, and of course the results of the Pew survey about about Obama's religion.

Several pollsters also maintain blogs, including the group at Pollster.com, a site we'll be using in class later on in the semester to discuss how election tracking polls work and what they're good for. Many of their posts are strictly informational, as in this one, which presents some of the results of a Public Policy Polling survey of Louisianans' opinions about the Gulf Coast oil spill. Others are more analytical, though, including this one on the Pew survey everyone's been talking about.

There's also "The Numbers" blog, where ABC News' polling director Gary Langer writes about a wide variety of public opinion topics. His posts from this past summer have included discussions about immigration, race, and, of course, Americans' beliefs about Obama being Muslim.


Finally, there are some blogs devoted to specific issues -- including several that you all are focusing on this semester -- that periodically have posts dealing with public opinion. You can use the Google Blog search engine to find ones that are relevant to your issue.

Gallup, Rasmussen Reports, and World Public Opinion

As I promised in class yesterday, I'll be supplying links and information about additional public opinion resources that you can tap into for your issue blogging and research papers. I'll be posting brief explanations of what you can find in each one and listing them alphabetically in the right sidebar under the "Public Opinion Resources" heading.

I'll start with 3 for today, including one that you've already been introduced to:

Gallup

This is the website of the Gallup Organization, an influential polling organization that was founded by Dr. George Gallup, one of the "founding fathers" of modern public opinion polling, back in 1935. As you've already seen, it includes poll reports on a wide variety of political and other issues, as well topical overviews that provide useful information about how American public opinion has varied over time.

Rasmussen Reports

Like Gallup.com, the Rasmussen Reports website offers an array of poll reports on different topics, including many that you all are focusing on this semester. It was also the source for many of the statistics presented in our "Public Opinion Bingo" game on Tuesday.

During the climax of the healthcare reform debate last spring, Rasmussen Reports founder Scott Rasmussen appeared on the Colbert Report to help explain how public opinion polling works:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Colbert Repoll - Scott Rasmussen
http://www.colbertnation.com/
Colbert Report Full Episodes 2010 Election Fox News

World Public Opinion

In contrast to Gallup and Rasmussen Reports, which focus primarily (but not exclusively) on American public opinion, World Public Opinion is an international project that provides information about public opinion in different countries and regions. Its poll reports deal especially with issues that have some international dimension to them.

Welcome to POL 312!

POL 312, Public Opinion, is an upper-level political science course that has the overarching objective of helping you become a more sophisticated consumer of research and reporting on the American public's attitudes and beliefs about public policy and political discourse, personalities, and events.

I'll be using this blog to provide access to some internet materials introduced in class, let you know about other resources that might come in handy for your issue blogs and portfolio materials, and occasionally comment on public-opinion-related current events.

I'm looking forward to meeting you all in class tomorrow (Tuesday, August 24) at 11 AM in 207 Schroeder Hall. In the meantime, feel free to check out the course website and/or email me at sgelbman@ilstu.edu if you have any questions or concerns.