With contributions from Mark Blumenthal, editor and publisher of Pollster.com; Democratic Party pollster Anna Greenberg; and Scotte Keeter, director of survey research for the Pew Research Center, the eight chapters in this volume edited by Goidel (mass communication and political science, Louisiana State U.), explore contemporary issues of public opinion polling. Topics include the problems of growing survey nonresponse and cell-phone-using populations, changing industry standards on the trustworthiness of polling methods, the increasing use of polls to frame political news stories, the possibility of going beyond the typically static picture of "opinion" captured by polls in order to offer insight into the dynamics of public political conversation, the relative value of online expression of political opinion as an object of analysis, alternatives to polling such as micro-targeting and focus groups, and the normative value of public opinion in democratic governance. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
