Irving Crespi, 1926-2004

Irving Crespi was an influential contributor to the field ofpublic opinion research, as theorist, methodologist, practitioner,and leader of the major professional organizations. Throughhis books and articles, Crespi added to the understanding ofhow opinions are formed and changed. The Public Opinion Processexplored the dynamics of opinion formation and the     

Letter to the Editor: A reply to Zipp and Fenwick

March 2007 In the Fall 2006 issue of Public Opinion Quarterly, John F.Zipp and Rudy Fenwick published "Is the Academy a Liberal Hegemony?,"an article openly framed as a reaction to "right-wing activistsand scholars" (304). The scholarship they cite is principallyours (Klein and Stern 2005a; Klein and Western 2005). They arriveat findings about ideological ratios said to be "far lower thanthe ratios found by Klein ..." (309). Unfortunately, ZF misrepresent us. We wrote and submitted afull reply, but the Editor Peter Miller asked us to keep to     

Editor's Note

Each Fall issue of Public Opinion Quarterly     

BIBLIOGRAPHY

In each issue, THE PUBLIC OPINION QUARTERLY publishes a continuationof an annotated bibliography which appeared in 1935 in bookform (Harold D. Lasswell, Ralph D. Casey, and Bruce Lannes Smith,Propaganda and Promotional Activities: An Annotated Bibliography.Minneapolis: Published for the Social Science Research Councilby University of Minnesota Press, 1935. 450 pp.).     

Policy Impact Award

The American Association for Public Opinion Research Presents the 2004 POLICY IMPACT AWARD to The Urban Institute For the Assessing the New Federalism Project AAPOR honors the Urban Institute for providing critical surveyson understanding     

Editor's Note

This issue inaugurates AAPOR’s relationship with OxfordUniversity Press as publisher of Public Opinion Quarterly. During2003,     

Editor's Note

Each Fall issue of Public Opinion     

Editor's Note

The masthead for this, the first issue of the 70^th year of publicationof Public Opinion Quarterly, lists some new members of the journal’sAdvisory and Editorial Boards. I want to welcome these scholarsof public opinion to the POQ family. Along with continuing membersof the boards, they perform essential roles in the operationof the journal, and we owe them a debt of gratitude for their     

Book Award

The American Association for Public Opinion Research Presents the 2004 AAPOR BOOK AWARD to John R. Zaller For The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion Cambridge University Press (1992) The Nature and Origins of     

Editor's Note

Readers of Public Opinion Quarterly know that a basic principleof scientific inquiry is transparency. Confidence in researchfindings increases to the degree that the research communityis able to assess the     

Innovators' Award (Blumenthal and Franklin)

The American Association for Public Opinion Research Presentsthe 2007 WARREN J. MITOFSKY INNOVATORS AWARD to Mark Blumenthaland Charles Franklin For Pollster.com Modern day public opinion polling in the United States has come     

Predicting No Opinion in the Polls

On poll questions, levels of expressed public ignorance or indifference—NoOpinion or Don't Know—can be explained in some part bycertain properties of the questions pollsters ask, althoughthe educational level of respondents is the single best predictor.No Opinion levels are analyzed in two large sets of recent pollquestions published by Gallup and Harris. A measure of the languagecomplexity of the questions shows no relationship to DK. Ofthe three other question predictors assessed, it is questioncontent which best illuminates levels of No Opinion in bothpolls and points to some unique characteristics of each. Theimportance of question content is demonstrated in two additionalsets of Gallup and Harris data. The more difficult kind of questioncontent dominates in all four sets of poll questions examined.     

The Polls Trends: Public Reactions to Global Health Threats and Infectious Diseases

Over the past two decades, newly emerging infectious diseaseshave developed into major global health concerns, sparking intensemedia coverage, and triggering fears of a global outbreak amongpublic health experts and authorities. This article focuseson trends in American attitudes toward these newly emerged infectiousdiseases by analyzing poll data over the past 6 years aboutissues relating to avian flu, severe acute respiratory syndrome,West Nile virus, and anthrax. The polls show that Americans’attention to news coverage seemed to be event driven, peakingwhen there were new human or animal cases, and decreasing rapidlywhen the diseases seemed to have been contained. Americans’perceptions of threats were usually the highest in the earlystages of major outbreaks. The public became more complacentwhen the outbreaks seemed to be under control. Both behavioralchanges and general knowledge remained largely constant, suggestinga limited impact of the various informational and awarenesscampaigns by governmental agencies in the wake of these pandemics. Abbreviations: ABC, ABC News • ABC/WP, ABC News/Washington Post • AP/IPSOS, IPSOS-Public Affairs for Associated Press • CBS, CBS News • CBS/NYT, CBS News/New York Times • GALLUP, Gallup Organization • GALLUP/CNN/USA, Gallup Organization for CNN/USA Today • HARRIS/TIME/CNN, Harris Interactive for Time and CNN • ICR/HARVARD, International Communications Research for Harvard School of Public Health Project on the Public and Biological Security • ICR/HARVARD-RWJF, International Communications Research for Harvard School of Public Health Project, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation • IPSOS/DC, IPSOS-Reid for Dittus Communications • NORC, National Opinion Research Center • OD/FOX, Opinion Dynamics for Fox News • PSRA/KAISER, Princeton Survey Research Associates for Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, Harvard School of Public Health • PSRA/NEWS, Princeton Survey Research Associates for Newsweek • PSRA/PEW, Princeton Survey Research Associates for Pew Research Center • PSRA/PMFMI, Princeton Survey Research Associates for Prevention Magazine/Food Marketing Institute