Public Opinion Vocabulary

The aggregation of views shared by a segment of society on issues of interest or concern

• Public opinion
• Public sentiment
• Community feedback
• Social consensus

The process by which people acquire political beliefs

• Political indoctrination
• Civic engagement
• Political socialization
• Electoral participation

means of communication that provide information to a large audience

• direct messaging
• social media
• mass media
• personal communication

statements meant to influence public opinion or promote a cause or viewpoint

• news report
• advertisement
• public statement
• propaganda

a survey of people scientifically selected to provide opinions about something

• feedback form
• survey
• questionnaire
• poll

the group of people who take part in the poll

• voters
• observers
• participants
• sample

the margin of error or level of uncertainty within a poll

• Confidence interval
• Sample size
• Polling methodology
• sampling error

errors introduced by polling methods that lead to one outcome over others

• Bias

• Accurate polling techniques
• Random sampling

• Statistical analysis errors

freedom from bias and outside factors

• Bias-free perspective
• Subjectivity
• Objectivity
• Partiality

randomly selected fraction of voters after they have voted tells pollsters how people voted before the official vote count

• Analysis of voter registration data

• post voting data

• Exit polls

• Polls conducted before voting begins.