Paper Presented at Conference in Chicago

Dr. Nicoleta Corbu, Director of the Center for Research in Communication, is the first author of a paper presented at the Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research, in Chicago, on November 20-21, 2009, with Qingmei Qing, doctoral student at University of Georgia, and dr. Lee B. Becker, the director of the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research.

The paper presents the results of a research conducted in late 2008 and early 2009, while dr. Corbu was a Fulbright Scholar at James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research, a unit of the Grady College at University of Georgia. The research focused on a new sampling method in public opinion surveys based on voters’ list and online telephone directories.

Two different samples were drawn from the official voter registration lists of Oconee County, Georgia. Voter lists are public records, containing voters’ characteristics that could help identify the biases in the samples interviews. The paper focused primarily on biases related to turnout and election outcome. Even though people overreport vote, this does not influence estimations for election outcome.

MAPOR is one of the most active chapters of AAPOR, the American Association for Public Opinion Research. Annually more than 100 researchers present papers at the conference.

Here is a copy of the paper presented at the MAPOR conference.