The Regulation of Poll Reporting in Canada

Abstract

The Canada Elections Act of 2000 regulates how the media must disclose the technical information regarding election polls. But the media coverage of non-election polls remains self-regulated. We examine how the technical information regarding election and non-election polling is reported in stories published by La Presse, the Globe and Mail, and the Calgary Herald. Our results show that, although media disclosure falls well short of the polling industry's standards, the technical information surrounding non-election polls is at least as complete as the information accompanying election polls. Long articles about polls sponsored by the media that publish them provide significantly more methodological information than short articles in which polls sponsored by “outside” organizations are mentioned in passing. These findings indicate that poll-reporting routines are relatively impervious to standards and rules regulating how poll results should be communicated to the public.