Depends on what time of the day and week they did the survey. More
marketing research firms call at random times of the day from eight am
to 9 pm, so as to catch as wide a range a sample as possible.  True, it
wouldn't catch the third-shift workers or those working rotation shifts
(again, depending on how long the surveying was done).  This past
presidential election, I got a lot of phone survey calls after
dinnertime, aronnd 7 or 8 pm.

Kat


Deri James wrote:

>Kat. This is only representative of people who have phones, who are "at home"
>at the time the survey is done, and agree to answer questions on the phone.
>If the survey is done during the day there is a high probability the sample
>will be skewed towards the retired population.
>
>The headline "55% of OAP's in Ca support the war" would not raise too many
>surprised eyebrows!!
>
>Cheers
>
>Deri
>
>On Wednesday 09 Apr 2003 9:23 am, you wrote:
>
>
>>Mag,
>>
>>The theory of statistics states that random sampling is representative
>>of the population as a whole, so no, you don't need a large number of
>>people to exterpolate findings.  A telephone survey, for example is
>>random sampling as long as you randomly pick numbers (and
>>computer-generated sampling ensures this) and so the results of a poll
>>can be said to be representative of the population.
>>
>>
>
>
>
>>This of course, depends on how the questions are stated.  They have to
>>be neutral, not slanted.
>>
>>I know all of this because 1) I took several statisitcal  analysis
>>courses in college and grad school, and 2) I worked for a marketing
>>research firm back in the 1980s as a supervisor who ensured quality in
>>coding the raw data.
>>
>>The rallies are not truly representative of the population at large
>>because they only attract people who are against the war and want to
>>express it in that fashion.  There are likely many more against the war
>>who don't want to march, as well as many in N. Calif. who are for the
>>war but don't go to marches.  Peace marching is *not* a truly
>>representative indicator of the US (or even Calif) population as a whole.
>>
>>Remember that Californians are the one who elected Reagan to
>>governorship and the ones who sent him to the Presidency.  'Nuff said.
>>I'd venture to say Californians are much more conservative as a whole,
>>than outsiders think.
>>
>>
>>Kat
>>
>>Magenta Raine wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Which poll was this?  Also, only 1000 people were polled. That's hardly
>>>enough people. We had 8,000 here in Oakland on Saturday.
>>>
>>>Mag
>>>
>>>
>
>
>