How Many People to Survey?

Poll results are prevalent in the media, especially leading up to elections, as are reports on surveys done by universities and research groups.

The survey results of small groups of people are used to portray a general consensus about a population. Do you ever wonder how many people should be included in a survey to make it a meaningful reflection of a population? Now you will be able to answer your own question. After learning this, you might never feel the same about these polls and surveys again.

Using the following specific resources, create a lecture (with citations) that includes the following:

Part 1: Survey Analysis

Entertainment Survey

Using a newspaper article from the AIU library's full-text database: Newsstand (ProQuest), create a lecture (with citations) that includes the following:

• Describe an entertainment poll or survey. Analyze the number of people who participated in the sample compared to the number in the population. Most news articles will not provide information on the number of people surveyed. In this case, critique the validity of the results. (Be sure to cite the article which must be from Newsstand ProQuest) Here is a Research Guide.
• Discuss how the results of the survey can be used to tell a story or support an idea of the sponsoring company or media group.

Political Survey

Use polls from one of the following sources:

Source 1

Source 2

• Describe a political poll or survey. Analyze the number of people who participated in the sample compared to the number in the population.
• Discuss how the results of the survey can be used to tell a story or support an idea of the sponsoring company or media group.

General Survey

Use polls from one of the following sources:

Source 1

Source 2

• Describe a general opinion poll or survey. Analyze the number of people who participated in the sample compared to the number in the population.
• Discuss how the results of the survey can be used to tell a story or support an idea of the sponsoring company or media group.

Overview

Consider the 3 surveys presented.

• Using the knowledge you learned from the textbook, compare and contrast the sample sizes in each of the three surveys mentioned in the post and determine if the samples sizes are appropriate.
• In your opinion, which appears to be the most valid? (Cite and reference the textbook)

This section of the paper will be 23 pages in length, and each survey or poll described must come from AIU Library's Newsstand ProQuest Database and the sources provided.

Please do not use quotes or copy definitions. You will not receive credit for understanding the materials if you use the words of others. Keep in mind that because you did research and you have citations in the body of the post, you must also place a reference list at the end containing the textbook and the articles cited.

Part 2: Application

Create your own 3-question entertainment survey or using this General Opinion Survey or another free survey program or this link. Secure a minimum of 20 responses. Your survey respondents may be friends, family or classmates. (Note: The small sample size was chosen for convenience, and as you know, is not a valid sample. The goal is for you to create, deploy, and analyze a simple survey.)

Create Excel charts of your results and describe those charts in words. (You will receive no credit for charts that are copied from the survey software.)

• Include a copy of your survey
• Provide charts of your results and describe those charts in words
• Explain how the results of your survey can be used by a media group or company

This section of the paper will contain 1 page of text and 3 charts.