Media Polls in American Politics.

• Author: Johnson, Stephen S.

Media Polls in American Politics Thomas E. Mann and Gary R. Orren, eds. (Washington, DC. The Brookings Institution, 1992) 172pp,

The publication of Media and Polls in American Politics is timely. Over the last dozen years the American people have been bombarded with media polls measuring public opinion on everything from the abortion debate to the changing role of the U.S. military abroad. Polls are now so numerous that they have become less meaningful: Americans now have less confidence, not only in the validity of the polls themselves, but also in the journalists and politicians who live and die by them. Media Polls, edited by Thomas E. Mann and Gary R. Orren of the Brookings Institution and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government respectively, provides an excellent reminder of the original purpose of polls: to provide accurate information so that citizens can make enlightened decisions regarding the public agenda.

Mann and Orren, however, use this volume to illustrate the negative effects of polls on public opinion: "They can set the news agenda and influence the coverage of political events in ways hostile to a constructive dialogue between citizens and their leaders." Well-written and easy to follow for both the layperson and the experienced journalist, the book is divided into seven short essays each covering different aspects of media polls. It is not, however, simply a collection of random topics; rather, each essay offers a chronology of the development of polls and comments on their evolving role in the democratic process. This format allows the reader a fuller appreciation of the subject. Mann and Orren pose two important questions that set the base of inquiry for the entire book: What are the strengths and weaknesses of media polls, and what has been the impact of media polls on U.S. politics? The editors choose papers that address each of these questions thoroughly and that offer examples of recent election outcomes to support their positions.

Three main themes emerge progressively from the collection: The impact of changing technology on media polls; polling techniques and ways in which polls can be misinterpreted; and finally, the role of polls in the democratic process. The first of these themes, the impact of technology, has played a crucial role in the development and evolution of polls. The two chapters devoted to it are among the most informative of the book.

Everett Ladd of the University of Connecticut and John Benson of the Roper Center examine the "enormous and steady" growth of media polling in the United States, which can be traced to the mid-nineteenth-century newspapers that canvassed political meetings to predict outcomes. It was not until the 1930s, however, that newspapers...