JOUR 312 Public Opinion Polls                                        
   (pre-requisite: Soc. 200 Introduction to Statistics)

(1 Term; 3 Credits)

This course is divided into three parts. The first part covers concepts of public opinion. Topics like theories of public opinion, relationship between public opinion and democracy and examination of criticisms toward public opinion will be discussed. The second part is about the research issues in opinion polling, such as measurement of public opinion, sampling technique in polling, and methodologies used. Finally, the application of opinion polling will be explored. Topics such as technology employed in public opinion polls, polling in Hong Kong and other countries, the relationship between polling and mass communication will be discussed.