Online Surveys Have Same Accuracy as Phone
A new study presented by two professors from Harvard University and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst was probably one of the liveliest and potentially disruptive presentations at least week’s...
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Internet Surveys and the Associated Press (AP)
Is it true that the Associated Press refuses to carry stories from online surveys? Yes, as odd as that seems nowadays. But news media face a difficult problem given how easy it is to conduct biased...
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Best Practices for Using Statistics in PR
One powerful way to gain visibility and credibility in your marketplace is by sponsoring survey research that documents problems and solutions in areas where you have expertise. To be successful, it...
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Your Margin of Error Is Probably Wrong
Even if you are not involved in political polling, it is worth paying attention to the methods and best practices of political pollsters. One reason is that few other areas of research offer a way to...
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Webinar on Polling for News and PR
Election years are a perfect time to learn about (and brush up on) the fundamentals of survey research. Not only are the airwaves inundated with public opinion polling, but methodological experts are...
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Newsrooms Flooded with Silly Surveys
Journalists and newsrooms are inundated with ever more data, information, and press releases that highlight survey findings in hopes of grabbing reporters’ and readers’ interest. While many surveys...
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The Dumbest PR Survey on Earth
Last week there was a flash of news coverage for a PR-driven survey that documented these important facts: Most Americans think Obama would do a better job than Romney in defending against an attack by...
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5 Research Lessons from Election Season Polling
During a presidential election year there is no escaping the flurry of public opinion polling and the intense scrutiny that surveys get from the media. But love it or hate it, there are excellent...
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NYT Blunders on Sample Size
Readers of this newsletter and blog know how much we value and respect the New York Times. It is one of the few resources we cite regularly, as it always has relevant, authoritative information that...
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Math for Journalists
Communicating statistics is sometimes harder than doing statistics. While statistics is all about formulas and logic and precision, words and sentences are all about communicating layers of meaning...
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Lessons from NYT on Data Dump Research
I often look to excellent journalism as a model for how researchers should turn data into stories: Do investigative work, interview the right people, analyze the details, then lay out a meaningful and...
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Election Season’s Dumb Statistics
A favorite pastime in my household is to laugh at the absurd statistics our local weatherman conjures up to make his reports sound dramatic, scientific, and driven by a deep analysis of data. Things...
View ArticleWhy Fake PR Surveys Outperform Real Ones
Sure we laugh at those ridiculously biased fundraising “surveys” from politicians. But for some reason, the poorly (but more cleverly) designed surveys put out by corporate PR departments often get a...
View ArticleVersta Research in the News
The Versta Research spring newsletter comes out this week, and highlights some of the work we have done that is in the news and recently published. Here is a sampling: New Index for HR Management...
View ArticleHow Polls Pass CNN’s Quality Review
This list of 16 questions that CNN will ask before they are willing to publish your polling data is worth reading because somebody at CNN clearly knows their stuff. It is far better than anything I...
View ArticleIf Truth Matters, Prove It with a Survey
The New York Times’ recent brand and marketing campaign is all about Truth. Well, if Truth really matters, then they desperately need a good old fashioned survey to back their flimsy claims in a recent...
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This PR Survey Is a Dream Come True. If Only It Weren’t Nonsense.
This data we saw last week reflects the type of data that PR professionals absolutely dream about and hope for when they conduct surveys. It shows hugely dramatic differences among the 50 U.S. states....
View ArticleThe Rigors of Good Research: Three Examples from Thought Leadership
One of the biggest challenges Versta Research faced during the first year of COVID-19 was a huge and puzzling spike in the amount of fraud on research panels. We saw many organizations falling victim...
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Don’t Be Fooled by the Mean (or How to Avoid Absurd Statistical Claims in...
Even smart people get tripped up by simple statistics, as this statement from a recent New Yorker article demonstrates: A hundred years ago, most Americans died in their mid-fifties. This was written...
View ArticleJournalist Tips on How to Communicate PR Surveys
On Monday I received media training from one of the research industry’s top professional organizations: The American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR). They hired Brenda Foster, a career...
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