Journalist's Guide to Public Opinion Polls

SHELDON R. GAWISER is senior poll analyst for NBC News and president of the National Council on Public Polls. He is president of Gawiser Associates, Inc. of Fairfield, Connecticut, consultants in information collection and management.G. EVANS WITT is assistant bureau chief of the Associated Press in Washington, D.C. He previously served as director of AP/NBC News polling.

• Foreword by Walter Mears Acknowledgments The Opinion Triangle The Press and Public Opinion: Always Linked A Brief History of Polls The Emergence of Precision Journalism The Polling Environment Today The Poll: Who Did? The Poll: Who Sponsored It? The Poll: Sampling The Poll: The Questions The Poll: Timing Is Everything The Poll: Sampling Error The Poll: Other Sources of Error Pseudo-Polls and SLOPS Reporting Polls: The Basics Reporting Polls: Numbers in Context Reporting Polls: Political Surveys Reporting Polls: Exit Polls and Projections The Future Appendix A: The World's Shortest Course in Statistics Appendix B: Twenty Questions Bibliography Index