Politics, polls and news media #nlpoli
For the past 65 years, public opinion polls have been an integral feature of news media reports on politics and elections. The reasons are pretty simple to understand. Most public…
media trends
Motivation and demotivation #nlpoli #nlvotes
“Complacency is your greatest enemy in an election,” Progressive Conservative Leader Kathy Dunderdale said Sunday. “When it's hard to motivate people to become engaged to get out and to cast…
Telelink releases campaign’s only independent poll #nlvotes #nlpoli
NTV and Telelink released the only independent poll of the campaign on Monday and with a week to go in the 2011 general election, things are on track for a…
Do debates matter? Part Deux #nlvotes #nlpoli
Last week ended with a wonderful bit of insight into where televised political debates figure into an election campaign. Before you go any farther into this post just stop for…
The Imaginary Centre of an Imaginary Universe #nlvotes #nlpoli
Town and Toronto start with a “T”. Some Townies can be like some Torontonians sometimes. Yes, yes. Settle down. Hold it down with the other “t” words, like twit, twillick,…
CBC torques poll coverage #nlpoli #nlvotes
Think of it as another form of poll goosing. As an example of how news media can take a piece of information and make a false statement out it, consider…
Do debates matter? #nlpoli #nlvotes
Debates matter but not in the way some people think. For starters they have nothing to do with knock-out blows. That’s a media invention they use along with horse-race reporting…
Taking your brain out of neutral #nlvotes #nlpoli
He said. She said. Claim. Counter-claim. Simple conflict. Simple news story. No problem? Problem. Well, maybe. You decide. Jay Rosen is a journalism professor at New York University. He doesn’t…
Welcome to the Echo Chamber #nlpoli #nlvotes
Pretty simple idea, really. Opinions, beliefs and ideas move around among like minded people in what is an essentially closed space. The effect can be amazingly powerful just as it…
Some old habits must die really hard: Telly edition #nlpoli #nlvotes
In the last couple of days of the 1989 election, the Telegram featured a set of poll results done by a local company. The poll showed Tom Rideout’s Tories in…
The Public Sector Pensions thing explained #nlpoli #nlvotes
People can’t understand the racket over provincial pensions, what the Liberals proposed, what the CBC reported but hasn’t explained and what the provincial Conservatives are attacking the Liberals over. Here’s…
Ceeb spins story for Tories #nlpoli
Rather than correct a mistaken early report on the cost of the Liberal party’s pension proposal the CBC online decided to torque the story against the Liberals. In a story…
Political Reporting 2011
As we slide into the fall general election’s open campaign period, some of you might find it interesting to ponder Jay Rosen’s recent post about the current state of political…
Twitter Psychology Insight
Via the always insightful Neville Hobson, came a link to a wonder little diagram that summarises the results o a recent survey of Twitter users. You can find Neville’s post…
Abercrombie offers cash for “Jersey Shore” to stop wearing brand
How valuable is a brand? Well, apparently their brand is so valuable that Abercrombie & Fitch is willing to pay the cast of “Jersey Shore” sizeable amounts of cash in…
Sun TV/Fox News wannabe? VOCM hits new low #nlpoli
Did they just get it wrong or is this the new standard of partisan journalism at the government-friendly VOCM? First of all, let us recall that Westcott is leaving the…
The medium of the bread and circuses message
How short is a news cycle? How long is a piece of string? Give any story a couple of days and odds are you won’t be reading or watching on…
No thought, please. We’re Danny.
In the summer doldrums, odd things poke through to grab your attention. Like this piece in the Calgary Herald about a speech Danny Williams gave back in June. Williams said…
Plastic, packaged and preaching to the choir
While some people may be excited about the fact that all three party leaders in the province are on Da Twitter, a close look at how political parties in newfoundland…
Rumpole and Food for Thought
The Mighty Ceeb is at it again with another story that distorts the information they started with. “Severe crime soaring in N.L.” scrams the website headline. The second paragraph: Statistics…