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* "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.
^ As respondents can choose more than 1 answer, figures in brackets ( ) indicate percentages of total responses, while other figures indicate percentages of total respondents. Only figures in brackets have been included in the original release.
Results of the late-April survey showed that, 82% and 76%* of the respondents claimed their main source of news was the television and the newspaper respectively, while 55% thought the news reported by the former channel was the most trustworthy. Regarding people's appraisal of various news channels, 74% of the respondents were satisfied with the television, whereas 62% were satisfied with the radio. Comparatively speaking, people's satisfaction with the printed media was lower, as the respective satisfaction rates of the newspaper and the magazine were 31% and 8% only. All in all, the latest satisfaction rate of the above news media in general was 49%.
* The percentages of respondents who claimed their main source of news was television and newspaper were 35% and 32% respectively in the original release.
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Commentary
Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, observed, "Survey shows that television and newspapers continue to be people's main sources of news, followed by radio, and then the internet. People's appraisal of the news media in general has dropped a little over the past six months, mainly due to growing dissatisfaction with the print media. Over the last six months, people's satisfaction with newspapers dropped by 7 percentage points, while their dissatisfaction with news magazines climbed to 42%, which is record high since this survey series started in 1993. Exactly how our news magazines can improve themselves to gain credibility has become a very pressing problem."
News about POP
POP's normal practice is to release the results of our regular surveys every
Tuesday afternoon via our POP Site, except during public holidays, each time
with a forecast of the items to be released in the next 7 days. According to
schedule, our next regular release of regular survey findings will be May
16, 2006, Tuesday, between 1pm to 2 pm, when the latest popularity figures
of CE Donald Tsang and Principal Officials under the accountability system
will be released.
Our general practice is to answer all questions on the research design of the surveys published in the POP Site as soon as we receive them, but we will not further comment on the findings. We welcome questions for follow-up purpose, please email them to us at <[email protected]>. 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 POP, is responsible for everything posted herewith, except for column articles which represent the stand of their authors.
Starting 2006, we have included a small educational section for the purpose of general civic education, the content of which was based on previous questions and comments we have received from the public. The subject of our education section today is "FAQs of Opinion Research", and the questions have stemmed from a recent comment received by POP.
Some FAQs of Opinion Research
Note: HKUPOP received the following comment on April 29, 2006 – "For the polls on support for various political parties, you have adopted a question which ask people to say if they support a political party. That however is not useful for electoral purpose as a voter may support parties A and B but can only vote for party A. Instead, could you also provide data on "which party a person chooses to support" and that each respondent can only pick one party from the list? I hope the above is achievable…" Based on these comments, we have generated the following FAQs.
Q: In measuring the popularity of political parties, would it be better to measure hypothetical choice rather than popularity ratings?
A: Hypothetical questions like "which party you would choose if there is an election tomorrow" give very useful indicators near elections, when respondents are quite sure which party is competing against which, and who is representing which party in the election. Needless to say, when parties advocate strategic voting, or split voting among supporters, the situation would be much more complicated.
Q: Can we deduce respondents' choice of voting based on popularity rating questions?
A: Yes, we can and we have. The conceptual framework is simple: If a respondent gives the highest marks to Party A among a group of parties, we can assume that he/she would vote for Party A if there was an election right now. "Highest" is defined on relative term, which may mean one's most favourite or least disliked choice. Moreover, rating parties individually is more useful but costly than using one question to map single choice, because the results could be analyzed with a large number of combinations.
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