should i share that survey?: a handy chart
Manila, 4 February—Feeling a bit under the weather after a slew of hectic days, but this was just irresistible: Over the weekend, someone who really wants to be a senator went to town with a press release about a survey in which they reportedly did well.
Reports about the survey, purportedly done by the Social Weather Stations from Jan. 23 to Jan. 26, are up, mostly unbylined on major news sites and at least one print broadsheet. It’s deeply upsetting, because despite the lack of an official release from SWS (an immediate red flag), and the obvious missing details, it still managed to get past gatekeepers. It’s disheartening.
What don’t we know about this survey? A lot. For example:
How many respondents were included in this survey?
What areas were covered by this survey?
Has this survey been commissioned? If yes, who did?
What is the margin of error?
These are not just random details; they’re important context. For the most part, surveys, especially electoral surveys, are nothing but numbers—without context, they are useless. I also think that electoral surveys serve politicians—not the readers, not the electorate. Being so, the least we could do is at least make sure all the information is complete and that we are not being used to spread falsehoods and to serve someone’s political agenda.
That being said: I really wish none of our gatekeepers fell for it.
On the upside, I’m glad the reports did not reach my feed though, and that I got wind of the issue through people who were already wary about it in the first place.
Anyway. My girlfriend and I did a flow chart to help people decide if a survey is worth sharing or not, for whoever it may help.
xo,
K.