|
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 results of our surveys on people's most familiar political figures. This survey has been conducted for many years, but its results were only released through our publication POP Express in the past. This is the first time we release the results online. In between 1994 and 2005, the "people's most familiar political figures" surveys were conducted and released in the form of "Top 10 political figures", using the same method as other "Top 10" or "Top 5" series, which involved both naming and rating stages. Starting from October 2005, we decided to simplify the "Top 10 political figures" survey by just recording and analyzing the "naming" results, because we have already developed over time many rating surveys which covered the ratings of CE, Government officials, members of Legislative and Executive Councils, and so on. As for the rating part, we decided only to conduct supplementary rating surveys on those who are listed among the top 10 most popular figures but who are not covered in our other rating surveys. Besides, as different from the other "Top 10" rating series, we also introduced rankings from 1 to 50 for "people's most familiar political figures", as well as average accumulative rankings calculated from the past 10 surveys which spanned over nearly five years, in order to indicate the ups-and-downs of these political figures in the long run. Please refer to our POP Site for details. Herewith the contact information of our latest survey. As a general practice, all figures have been weighted according to provisional figures obtained from the Census and Statistics Department regarding the gender-age distribution of the Hong Kong population in 2005 year-end:
|
|
^ The earliest of the past 10 surveys was conducted in April 2-8, 2002. For each survey, those who ranked 50 or beyond and those not on the list are counted as 50th in our calculation of average rankings. Numbers in square brackets [ ] indicates the overall rankings of average cumulative rankings over the past 10 surveys.
The top political figures listed in our naming survey were all those who obtained highest top ten unprompted mentions in the survey conducted in early October. In this survey, respondents could name, unaided, up to 10 political figures whom they knew best. Donald Tsang, Anson Chan, Henry Tang, Martin Lee, and Wong Yan-lung were the top five. The corresponding percentages of respondents who could name these figures were 40%, 25%, 25%, 21% and 13%. The 6th to 10th ranks fell to Rafael Hui, Audrey Eu, Leung Kwok-hung, Rita Fan and Sarah Liao respectively. Their recognition rates were 12%, 11%, 10%, 9% and 8% respectively. Please refer to the relevant table for the rest of the list. For easy reference, the POP Site has already displayed the results of all naming surveys conducted since April 1994.
|
|
Commentary
Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, observed, "As of early October, Donald Tsang, Anson Chan, Henry Tang and Martin Lee are no doubt the most familiar political figures in Hong Kong. Amongst them, people's familiarity with Anson Chan rapidly increases over the past six months, to become second only after Donald Tsang. However, in terms of average accumulative rankings calculated using the last ten surveys, which span over almost five years, Anson Chan ranks only fifth, after Donald Tsang, Martin Lee, Henry Tang and Rita Fan, in that order. If we look at the most recent changes registered between the last two surveys, 6 months apart, then Regina Ip no doubt registers the biggest change, from beyond the 50th position to the 11th, obviously due to her tremendous media exposure in recent months. It should be noted, however, that our ranking of 'people's most familiar political figures' is based on our survey which requests respondents to name local political figures without prompting. This kind of familiarity measurement has nothing to do with support ratings. In other words, those high on the list may not be the most supported figures, while those lower down may have a different ranking if we use a prompting method. However, in any case, those who score best in unprompted surveys are definitely the most well-known political figures in Hong beyond any doubt."
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 release of regular survey findings will be October 26, 2006, Thursday, between 1pm to 2 pm, when the findings of our Policy Address follow-up survey will be released. Then on October 31, 2006, Tuesday, between 1pm to 2pm, we will release the latest popularity figures of CE Donald Tsang and the HKSAR Government.
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 from January 2006, we have included in our regular press releases a small educational section for the purpose of general civic education, so that we can share our experience with the general public. The subject of our education section today is "About HKUPOP".
About HKUPOP
People's most familiar political figures survey
HKUPOP conducted the first "Top 10 political figures naming survey" in April 1994, in order to study people's knowledge with political figures. Same as other "Top 10" and "Top 5" series, we take it to be part of our social responsibility to conduct such surveys, not because of any political preferences. The development of this series of surveys is as follows:
-
In April 1994, HKUPOP began our regular naming and rating surveys of "Top 10 political figures", including Hong Kong people's recognition and extent of support towards different local political figures. Because we have gradually developed over time many rating surveys which covered the ratings of CE and Principal Officials under the accountability system, the top 10 Legislative Councillors, people's most familiar non-official members of the Executive Council, the top 10 members of the HKSARG Preparatory Committee, and so on, in order to avoid duplications and to spare more resources and manpower for other survey topics, in October 2005, we decided to concentrate only on recording and analyzing the "naming" results. As for the rating part, we decided only to conduct supplementary rating surveys on those who are listed among the top 10 most popular figures but who are not covered in our other rating surveys. Besides, as different from the other "Top 10" rating series, we also introduced rankings from 1 to 50 for "people's most familiar political figures", as well as average accumulative rankings calculated from the past 10 surveys which spanned over nearly five years, in order to indicate the ups-and-downs of these political figures in the long run.
-
From the beginning to December 1999, our "Top 10 political figures" survey, the forerunner of our "most familiar political figures" survey, was conducted once every 4 months. It was then gradually changed to once every 6 months in order to match with society's development. The question wordings used in the 1994 surveys were: "Please name up to 10 politicians that you are most familiar with." From 1995 onwards, they were changed to: "Please name up to 10 political figures that you are most familiar with."
-
Regarding sample size, from the beginning to April 2000, the sample size was set at slightly over 500. From October 2000 onwards, it was increased to at least 1,000.
-
The findings of "Top 10 political figures" surveys since September 1996 were published in our newsletter POP Express. After our HKU POP Site was established in June 2000, this survey is released online today for the first time, while previous findings published in our POP Express have also been uploaded on-line in various formats.
|
