HKU POP SITE releases ratings of the Legislative Councillors and people's appraisal of the news mediaBack

The Public Opinion Programme (POP) at the University of Hong Kong today releases on schedule via the "HKU POP SITE" (http://hkupop.pori.hk) the latest popularity ratings of the top ten Legislative Councillors and people's appraisal of press freedom and media credibility. Ratings of the top 10 Legislative Councillors obtained since February last year are summarized as follows:

* "95% confidence level" means that if we were to repeat a certain survey 100 times, using the same questions each time but with different random samples, we would expect 95 times getting a figure within the error margins specified.
** Ratings with recognition rates not reaching top 10 in either stage of survey are not available.
[ ] Number in square brackets indicates rankings.
@ Erratum: The label of error margins in the original release was mis-typed.

With respect to the latest popularity ranking of the Legislative Councillors, the results of early February showed that Audrey Eu remained to be the most popularly supported councillor, attaining 66.2 marks. Rita Fan came second with 61.4 marks. Selina Chow and Lee Cheuk-yan ranked 3rd and 4th, scoring 59.0 and 58.8 marks respectively. James Tien, Martin Lee and Szeto Wah followed behind, with support ratings of 55.8, 54.6 and 53.2 marks in respective orders. The 8th to 10th ranks fell to Andrew Wong, Emily Lau and Jasper Tsang correspondingly. The mean score obtained by the top 5 councillors was 60.2 marks, while that for the top 10 was 55.1 marks, indicating significant increases of 5.2 and 4.6 marks respectively from those of a similar survey conducted in early November last year.

The research design of our "Top 10 Legislative Councillors" has been explained in detail under "Survey Method" in our corresponding web page. The top councillors listed in our latest survey were all those who obtained the highest unprompted mentions in our first stage naming survey conducted in late January (January 26-29). In that survey, respondents could name, unaided, up to 10 legislators whom they knew best. Martin Lee, Emily Lau, Selina Chow, Szeto Wah and Rita Fan were mentioned most frequently. Please refer to the relevant table for the rest of the list. Those 12 who were named most frequently then entered into the second stage rating survey. During the second stage rating survey conducted in early February, respondents were asked to rate each legislator in turn using a 0-100 scale. 0 indicates absolutely no support, 100 indicates absolute support, and 50 means half-half. After calculation, the bottom 2 legislators in terms of recognition rate were dropped, leaving behind the top 10. For easy reference, the POP Site has already displayed the results of all naming surveys conducted since the year 1998.

Besides, people's satisfaction with the freedom of the press in Hong Kong and their appraisal of the credibility of the local news media in general were also gauged in this survey. Relevant findings obtained since February last year are summarized as follows:

* "95% confidence level" means that if we were to repeat a certain survey 100 times, using the same questions each time but with different random samples, we would expect 95 times getting a figure within the error margins specified.
** Collapsed from a 5-point scale.
@ Erratum: The label of error margins in the original release was mis-typed.

Results showed that, 59% of the respondents were satisfied with the freedom of the press in Hong Kong. As for the credibility rating of the Hong Kong news media in general, on a scale of 0-10, the latest figure registered was 6.16 marks.

Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, observed, "The relative rankings of the top ten Legislative Councillors have not changed much since July 1 last year. Audrey Eu, Rita Fan, Selina Chow and James Tien have been among the top 5 throughout. Together with Lee Cheuk-yan, Martin Lee, Szeto Wah, Emily Lau and Jasper Tsang, they are the councillors whom people know best. After an abnormal drop in popularity registered in November, most of the councillors have recovered to a level before the drop. James Tien, however, still scored 5.2 marks lower than what he got in August, and his ranking was 2 places lower. This shows that the effect of July 1 on the popularity of James Tien is fading away."

POP's normal practice is to release the results of our regular surveys every Tuesday at 2 pm via our POP Site, except during public holidays, each time with a forecast of the items to be released in the forthcoming week. We will review and adjust this operation regularly. According to this schedule, the date and time of our next release will be February 24, 2004, Tuesday, at 2 pm, figures on people's appraisal of the professionalism of the local news media will be released online for the first time.

Shall anyone have any question regarding the research design of the surveys published in the POP Site, members of the POP Team will be happy to answer them, but we will not further comment on the findings. Shall any person or journalist have any other questions, please email them to us at <[email protected]>. The Director of Public Opinion Programme would answer them as soon as possible. We will keep such an arrangement under constant review, suggestions most welcome. Please note that everything carried in the POP Site does not represent the stand of the University of Hong Kong. Dr Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, is responsible for everything posted herewith, except for column articles which represent the stand of their authors.