Crafting a Political Message from a Scientific Survey
Date
2010-05
Authors
McCabe, Samuel F.
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Abstract
This thesis explores crafting political messages in a local setting through the use of polling data. The merits of polls are often misunderstood in a political campaign. News outlets publish different types of polling results, but less often are polls publicly exposed for their true values--testing language. People may ask why political campaigns run particular TV ads or a direct mail piece about one issue rather than another issue. I will answer this through a detailed description illustrating how to construct a political survey and how to interpret the results.
By using a quantitative method I will show--through concrete examples--how I created a political message in a city council campaign in San Marcos, Texas in the fall of 2009. I will show both the initial poll questionnaire, the survey results, how I interpreted results to develop the message, the final election results, and post election analysis.
Description
Keywords
polling, political campaigns, San Marcos, politics, Texas politics, Honors College
Citation
McCabe, S. F. (2010). Crafting a political message from a scientific survey (Unpublished thesis). Texas State University-San Marcos, San Marcos, Texas