Lincoln (Neb.) - Nov. 9, 1999 - Allan McCutcheon, director of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Gallup Research Center, leaves Wednesday for a trip to Germany to help media sort through polling issues during a particularly tumultuous time in German politics.
Germany has just completed a series of elections in which the ruling party faired poorly. McCutcheon says the German citizenry is increasingly turning to public opinion surveys for insight on what's likely to happen politically and economically.
"I'm looking forward to getting an opportunity to speak with people in the media about the important role they play in this important aspect of the democratic process," McCutcheon said. "Polling is so widespread in democratic society, the media has a really critical role to play in communicating back to the people what the public thinks about the policies of government."
McCutcheon will present "The Role of Polling in Modern Democracies" at a media conference Nov. 15 in Wiesbaden, Germany. He will talk about the importance of training journalists in survey methods.
"Polls do increasingly well at measuring public
opinion, but to accurately get that information back to the
public journalists must be able to distinguish the good
polls from the bad ones," McCutcheon said.
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