Mass Communicator
Year : 2007, Volume : 1, Issue : 1
First page : ( 20) Last page : ( 25)
Print ISSN : 0973-9688.

Opinion poll surveys: Bandwagon or underdog effect?

Yadav Anubhuti, Senior Lecturer

National Council for Education Research and Training, New Delhi.

Abstract

Public opinion is very essential in any democratic society. It is the opinion of people towards issues that makes them important and worth discussing during elections. Media plays a pivotal role in creating, sustaining, moulding and evaluating public opinion. In recent years, public opinion surveys have become an important part of the political process by which newsmen and political leaders appraise the public sense of social priorities. Social scientists and others study people’s opinion not only out of curiosity but also at times in the hope of influencing themt. Due to this, time and again such surveys are in controversy. Research about impact of such surveys on voter has been conducted mainly in western countries. In India very little is known about how voters perceive these surveys. This paper is an attempted to highlight how Indian electorate perceives opinion poll surveys. The study was conducted in Delhi during 2004 LoK Sabha elections aiming at exploring how general public perceives these surveys and whether these surveys have any impact on their voting decision.

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