Thursday, September 26, 2013
Media Critque: USA TODAY/Pew Poll: ObamaCare
My initial reaction to this USA TODAY poll/article was confused. It didn't explain the information in a way that was understandable. They threw numbers at you without explaining how they got the data. Then I had a closer look. I realized they were violating one of the nine principles of journalism, verification. They gave us information about the new Obama Care and how people were reacting to it in their poll, but didn't tell us who they polled, how they choose them, and how many people they polled. This is very important because you cant understand the information they gave us without knowing those details. Without those details you cant know if that information is even reliable. Without that reliability you cant know for sure if they are being loyal to us , as the citizens, which is in violation of another one of the nine principles of journalism, loyalty.
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You didn't post a link to the article you are critiquing, so I had to go find it for myself. Is this it?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/09/16/usa-today-pew-poll-health-care-law-opposition/2817169/
If this is the article to which you refer, you'll notice that the information you seek is directly below the poll graphic at the top of the page:
"Source: USA TODAY/Pew Research Center Poll of 1,506 adults taken Sept. 4-8. Margin of error +/-3 percentage points. Janet Loehrke, USA TODAY"
There is also a link to Pew's website within the article that goes into even more depth about the poll itself:
http://www.people-press.org/2013/09/16/as-health-care-law-proceeds-opposition-and-uncertainty-persist/