Product Description: This unique text provides a comprehensive framework for creating, managing, and interpreting qualitative research studies that yield valid and useful information. Examples of studies from a wide range of disciplines illustrate the strengths, limitations, and applications of the primary qualitative methods: in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, ethnography, content analysis, and case study and narrative research...read more

Product Description: In conjunction with top survey researchers around the world and with Nielsen Media Research serving as the corporate sponsor, the Encyclopedia of Survey Research Methods presents state-of-the-art information and methodological examples from the field of survey research...read more

Product Description: Right up to election day many polls showed Kerry leading Bush by a significant margin, and early exit polling confirmed this misapprehension. Why were the polls so wrong and what does it mean to "be ahead" in the polls? How ephemeral are these leads at different stages of the campaign?What about these polls anyway? Who sponsors them? How are they conducted? What do they mean? For the third presidential election running, Michael Traugott and Paul Lavrakas give voters everything they need to know about election polls and why it matters that we understand them...read more

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Product Description: The contributors challenge conventional approaches taken by US news media in their poll-based campaign coverage. The book reports research findings on news coverage of recent presidential elections and suggests how journalists and news-media executives could improve their analysis of poll data...read more

Product Description: What quality control methods can be used most effectively to structure and monitor interviews and convert refusals? What telephone numbers should be used in random digit dialling? How can eligible respondents be chosen and their cooperation secured? Addressing these and other survey issues, this book offers researchers a guide to thinking about and executing telephone surveys from generating phone numbers to structuring the work of interviewers and supervisors...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

This volume explores the history and use of polls in the USA and makes suggestions for ways the media should handle polling in the future. Contributors include experts in the field who are all actively involved in the collection and analysis of polls for national media.