On Adler, Polling and the Role of the Media in Democracy

This post concerns an interview that Adler did with Tim Wollstencroft concerning a poll regarding negotiating with the Taleban. This points out that polls can be used to sway public opinion. Selective wording influences your results. It is bad enough that statistics can be skewed to prove almost any point that you want to make.

What this brings into focus for me is that many of the polls are conducted at the behest of the media. The polls are conducted to influence opinion in the manner the media outlet desires and then the results are fed back to the public as confirmation of the media outlet's opinion.

This takes me on to the role of the media in a democracy. To me the role of the media in a democracy is to freely present ideas to the public. The public then will use its voice to decide upon these issues and speak by means of election. The problem is that polls are now part of the story. The release of poll numbers does not occur in a vacuum but rather is a source of justification.

I wish that the media would present the facts and offer opposing views and then allow me to make a decision. Instead, our state run broadcaster has a distinct flavor, just as most Fox News programs do. The issue of journalistic integrity was assumed and now I think the blogs provide the balance that the journalists used to provide. It is not possible to find a blog with diametric views on the same source, but one can go to various sources to get other perspectives for consideration.