A critique of internet polls as symbolic representation and pseudo-events.

In November of 2004, InternetWorldStats.com reported that 69% of the United States population was using the World Wide Web (WWW). Demographic data gathered by the Pew foundation suggest that the Internet is used equally by both men and women (Lenhart et al., 2003, p. 6), although men tend to use the Internet slightly more for newsgathering and informational purposes than women do (Fallows, 2004, pp. 18-19). Additionally, a 2004 Pew Research Center study reports that 88% of Internet users have used the Internet to access news Web sites, 15% of Internet users access news exclusively on the Web, and 40% of Internet users gather news both offline and online (Fallows, 2004, p. 23).

The broadcast and print media have responded to the public's desire for Internet news and entertainment and have migrated content from broadcast and print sources to the WWW (He & Zhu, 2002; Middleberg & Ross, 2000, 2002; Schultz, 2000; Wu & Bechtel, 2002). The academic community is also responding to this trend. Research has examined the number of online newspapers, the number of local broadcast networks with news Web sites, and the similarities and differences between broadcast and print Web sites (Lin & Jeffres, 2001; Middleberg & Ross, 2000, 2002; Stempel, Hargrove, & Bernt, 2000; Wu & Bechtel, 2002). Researchers have also conducted content analyses of online news practices (Chan-Olmsted & Park, 2000; Lin & Jeffres, 2001; Marton & Stephens, 2001; McMillan, 2000; Singer, 2001). However, more questions about the integration of print, broadcast, and Internet news need to be asked.

The purpose of this article is to critically examine the nonscientific Internet polls that appear on the Web sites of major broadcast media outlets. Nonscientific online opinion polls differ greatly from the original vision of public opinion research (to help policy makers gauge public sentiment) and those differences have implications for how citizens understand news and national events. The first section of the article traces the intent of public opinion polling from its roots as a way to inform public policy to its use today as a news and entertainment vehicle. The second section of the article presents two critical frameworks, the "pseudo-event" and the concept of "symbolic representation," to illustrate the entertainment dimension of Internet polling by the news media. The final section of the article conducts a critique of online public opinion polls and raises issues for scholars and teachers of journalism, media studies, and communication.

The Intent of Public Opinion Polling

The use of public opinion polls has changed over the last 100 years (Herbst, 1990, 1998). The history of the poll has been traced by political scientists and communication scholars (cf., Herbst, 1990, 1998; Hogan, 1997; Korzi, 2000; Rubenstein, 1995). For the purposes of this article, however, we trace polling from its original intent as a tool for informing public policy to its current application as a news and entertainment tool.

Polls to Support Public Policy Decisions

Modern opinion polling in the 1900s was both optimistic and cautious. Korzi identified A. Lawrence Lowell's 1913 book, Public Opinion and Popular Government, as the "first major book on public opinion by an American" (2000, p. 54). This book describes the balance between a belief in the common person and a need for experts to guide decision making. Walter Lippmann's 1922 book, Public Opinion, raised important questions about citizen participation in politics. And John Dewey's, The Public and its Problems (1927), examined the public in terms of interactions between people.