Why do I ask this? Well, I've been thinking about our culture and its trends, and how they are influenced by the mass media and entertainment industries, as well as the news industry.

For example, have any of you ever turned on the radio, and gotten sick because all you hear is crap? I'm talking mostly about the new songs coming out. And I think to myself, "why do these songs become popular? They suck." WHO decides what all of US are going to "love?" It's not like the songs that make it out on the radio do so because everyone loves them. No, they come out, and then they are considered "hot" by the media, and so everyone loves them! You can apply this concept to other facets of the media and overall pop-culture.

What I'm trying to say is, is that it's not like there are all these options of songs and artists that are layed out in front of the public, and the public then sees what's available, and then the best are picked and THOSE are the songs or shows or fashions or styles or what have you that make it out and are popular. No, it seems we are TOLD what is good, without ever knowing many alternatives. Not that it's impossible to see what else is out there, but most don't even bother looking around, they are just fine being told and spoon-fed what's hip and popular.

Now getting to my point about polling. Does this same concept apply to what the news tells us? For instance, with the upcoming election, the dems have eventually filtered out all the candidates, and now Kerry is left. You hear about polls and what they tell us about who is the best and who's the current frontrunner and such. And this is not just only about elections, but about many things. But just WHO are these people that are being polled? We are told that these people are selected randomly from the populace from different demographical profiles so that they get a great representation on what the public feels on any given issue. The thing is, I've never been asked or polled, and I know no one that has either, or anyone that even KNOWS someone that has been polled.

My concern is this; connecting this polling concept with what I earlier mentioned about the media and entertainment industries........are we just being told who would be great for the presidency, whether it be dem or rep? Sure, in everything I've mentioned, we can choose between this song or that song, this artist or that artist, or this candidate or that candidate, but only to the extent of what we are TOLD is good. So what good are options and choices, if the options we have are controlled in the first place????

I mean, how many of you out there really like Bush OR Kerry? Do either one of them seem like a good guy? Even if you do, do you think these are the BEST America has to offer???? Seriously??? Or do we just go based on what polls and news tells us? Do we go on what they tell US what WE like?

Of course, these are only potential and apparent happenings that I see. So that's why I'm asking if any of you have participated in a poll. This is one question that I can ask that can help shed light on whether these polls and what the U.S. people "like" are true, or if these polls are BS. I mean, if no one is actually polled, it's not a big deal, because everyone will think that everyone ELSE was the one who was polled on who is a good candidate or what have you. So please, help me out on this. I hope I've explained my thoughts well enough. I hope that they make sense to you and you understand what I'm saying and what I'm trying to get at. I could be completely wrong on everything though.

So, chime in. Thanks.

[Edited on 5-5-2004 by SimpleTruth]

[Edited on 5-5-2004 by SimpleTruth]

simple to put my friend was on the adavnced placement class and he enough understoof the information of the situation. please forgive my improper english.

good question.. I always wondered about that.

I have never been polled nor has anyone I know. We have discussed this many times.

i wrote a paper on that same problem, but focusing on fashion. its similar... this is my take on it.


>>Myself included, everyone analyzes him or herself on occasion. Some people may be more vain than others, but everyone has looked him or herself in the mirror and decided to change something about their visual image. Perhaps they do not like the way their hair covers their face, or glasses magnify their eyes. Maybe they like their eyes to be magnified and purchase glasses for just that reason. Eventually we all conform to some image we want to fit or portray.
This image is subtly dictated to us by society. Stereotypes are many. Librarians are nerds, and hit men have muscles. Like it or not, this fast-paced society and its constant bombardment of unwritten dress codes, by default, biases our opinions from day one. Most of us end up dressing a certain way, just so that we are not mistaken or stereotyped as somebody or something we would rather not be. There are some who rebel because they don’t like to be judged on image alone. Just to spite the system, they will find the most outrageous piece of clothing and/or abstract hairdo for the sake of shock value. When everybody is being different in the name of the “individual,” then really everyone just becomes different versions of the same thing. Seldom is it found, an individual that dresses him or herself based purely upon what they like; for what do people like or dislike except what they know and have experience with?
Julie doesn’t like high socks, because they make her legs itch. A few years later she buys a pair after seeing her favorite actress flaunting some. Sooner or later Julie has a whole school of girls wearing them. High-socks are the norm until Julie’s friend Amanda decides to wear no socks because it will grab more attention. Is a freethinker really that, if he or she changes his or her ways to avoid conforming?
The objective is lost when it becomes cool to be different. When people blindly fit into their little cliques and genres, they are just another statistic. One can walk through any random high-school and see the many different groups fitting their own particular image, being whatever it is they are trying to be. Hollywood, MTV, and this democratic society in general tell us to accept one another and be tolerable of all the other groupings unlike ourselves. Miguel from the punk crowd can slap hands with Demetrius who prefers a more thuggish look. Sure, it is great to see people get along, but the result is a giant mass of shallow-minded people focusing on fitting this accepted idea of what a ‘cool’ society should look like. As a people, we must have a lot of free time to put so much attention into “out-shock-value-ing” each other.
Of course, clothing comes in many different shapes, sizes and prices, and attention to dress becomes more important with more money. Nonetheless, in a culture centered on entertainment, how one dresses is important to many people.
The need to be accepted causes people to conform, thus creating a popular opinion, which leads to an identity crisis for the individual, resulting in a new fad or trend which quickly becomes popular and the need to be accepted starts the cycle all over again. Some change to conform, others change to avoid conforming, but both are changing in response to an outside opinion. As individuals, we might be better off rethinking our opinions and reasoning’s for them. What do I like, and why?

Of course we can only make opinions on what we are tol. and they like to tell us things just right. (sarcasm)

Did anyone hear about the fake news? The government got fake news anchors and broadcast fake news! Not even lying man. Doesn't this seem like something a President or other official would be impeached for?

But to your original statement, true, most of us just listen to whats "HOT!" or "THE NEW CRAZE!" but not all of us. I'd personally rather put in a good Randy or Red Animal War album than turn on the radio and be bombarded with commercials and the same song every half hour. Its the choice people make not to expand. You can blame the radio and this and that, but you can also blame people for being lazy and not finding their own thing (or making their own thing....shameful self promotion: NON-ASSEMBLED!). And shoot i'm not saing that people who don't listen to mainstream are cool and the best because the're not confformists. It's about listening to what you like and what you want, forget whether its popular or not. I like Brandtson, Benton Falls, and International Noise Conspiracy just as much as I like Steve Miller Band, the Goo Goo Dolls, shoot even Crazytown and especially the Gorillaz. Some people don't think that maybe those people always listening to he radio and sucked in by all of that stuff ACTUALLY like it. We seem to categorize them as these poor trapped souls who conform to society to fit in and get through another day with a fake enthusiasm. But give a bunch of those people a Jesse album or a Stratovarius album and they just don't like it, because they like something that happens to be popular.

I don't listen to the radio or the whole MTV stuff, not because its mainstream and fake, but just because I've found something I like more. And its the same way for other people.

I knowthat wasn't really your major point, but its just something I wanted to say.

...These enterprises are sometimes HS or CIA anti-chambers.

I have taken part in some polls before and currently part of the Harris online poll. So much is dependent on the way the questions are formed. I told as much to one poll from a congressman, the way the questions were worded they were designed to get a specific result that could then be put out showing just what they wanted to prove.

I'm very sceptical of any poll numbers that do not give the questions asked, or just a vague overview of what the poll was about.

Poll shows 100% of people asked have physical abuse in their relationships!

Question---Have you stopped beating your partner? YES__ NO__

[Edited on 5/7/2004 by Duke_Nukem]

Firstly, statistics can be manipulated in any way humanly possible in order to convey the viewpoint that people want to be conveyed.
Anyone who's covered a statistics mathematics course, even superficially (that is, in precalculus or trig, etc) knows this. Any psychology student knows this, as well.

As for why we're constantly inundated with absolute swill from the pop-culture manufacturing machine?
I generally attribute it to the idea that, well, about 99.99% of the general population is...uh...pretty darn stupid. They'll swallow down most anything they're told and then hold out their plates for seconds.
It's a rule of business: You cater to the largest market. The largest market in America today are whatever class of morons have the highest amount of expendable income. 'nuff said.

Youve made a lot of good points, simpletruth, and I, for one, do not believe in the polls. I simply believe that most of the publicized ones do not reflect the true intentions and perspectives of the general population.

Yes, a lot, if not all, of the music on pop radio sucks. Which is why I listen to CD's and talk shows (sporradically).

Yes, both Bush and Kerry suck the biggest kind of balls you can imagine and are opposite arms of the same beast. Which is why I am not voting for them.


Nans, it does not surprise me about what you have just said. I have been thinking along those same lines for the longest time.

It is my opinion that these polls, when released by the media, is a form of getting the public to conform to advertised and guided ideals. I never believe the polls because I have faith in humanity, and there is no way the general population is as hideously gullible as the media would have you believe.

I have participated in a Gallop poll once. Someone called and asked a bunch of questions sbout my feelings about how Bill Clinton was doing during his first term, FWIW.

I'm not 100% sure if this has really been touched upon, but the main "problem" you addressed was who was polled, and how are these people chosen.

Yes, it is a good cross-section of the population. (This is one of the parts of Stats I understood completley!)

Stratified random sampling is done. Since the population of Middle-Class suburbia and cities is massive, chances are that you DON'T know someone who was polled. There is an even amount of upper class, middle class, lower class, as well as suburban, cities, and rural areas which are polled. Even though a proportionate sample makes sense, this method is used. Also, a smaller amount of people are taken, just to make the stats weigh "better" in one direction or another. If the statisticians poll only 500 people, they can throw out sections of people where they see fit (can you say bribery?). Ahhh, the joys of the American System.

I am adicted to polls I get invitiations to polls about 7 to 8 times a week some of them you have to respond inmediatly because they are only open for a day others are open for few days by different companies and I had notice that depending on who is doing the poll or who is the group financing the poll that is the results you get, everything is about the (benjamin baby). Remember somebody is paying for this polls so more likely they are fix. ( only opinion poll pay for your my answers)

Originally posted by marg6043
I am adicted to polls I get invitiations to polls about 7 to 8 times a week some of them you have to respond inmediatly because they are only open for a day others are open for few days by different companies and I had notice that depending on who is doing the poll or who is the group financing the poll that is the results you get, everything is about the (benjamin baby). Remember somebody is paying for this polls so more likely they are fix. ( only opinion poll pay for your my answers)

It seemslike you're referencing the type of group things. I've done a few of the jobs where you answer perhaps ten questions, sit in a room and watch a brief movie, and then write down your impressions of it.
You can make about five bucks on those things, too.
You get invited to AP polls? I'd be interested in signing up, because I've literally never completed any polling asides this one phone survey I took regarding hollywood movie distribution: I assume it was from just a corporation attempting to figure out who was watching their films.

I got the polls by serching for it on copernic search. I sign for it, then you wait for the invitation, some you have to participate on a pannel on line and others just answer questions, I also get products to test at home and sometimes they call at the house for interviews. I get paid between 2 to 10 dollars and it adds up after a while. Some of my favorite are Ann Parks, oppinion polls, easerch, lightspeed panel and i think.

Can you give links to the places where I can sign up for those programs? I've been looking for a way to make a little extra cash. Also, I want to help out statisticians as much as possible!