Quality of survey questions published on Slovenian journalistic web sites

Abstract

Some journalistic web sites regularly publish survey questions or polls on current public opinion issues. The goal of these surveys is primarily to entertain the visitors and increase the number of visits. However, these surveys may also shape public awareness and opinion. Therefore, the quality of these survey questions is not to be neglected. We studied the quality of survey questions and response alternatives published on three Slovenian journalistic web sites. The quality of the analyzed survey questions and response alternatives was evaluated using an expert evaluation scheme as checklist. The most striking deficiencies of both survey questions and sets of response alternatives are presented and described. We show that the quality of these questions is often low in comparison to professional survey questions that are used in social science research.