Question Wording

A couple things:

I think that we need to keep the "prefer not to answer" in all of our questions for data reasons. When we're entering in our data we need to have an answer for everyone so that our results are messed up. So, if someone prefers not to answer, we need to keep track of that. In all of the surveys I've participated in at UBC, if my memory serves me well, there is almost always a "prefer not to answer" choice.

Also, I think we need to work on the wording of the voting question. How are we going to know if someone didn't vote because they didn't want to or because they were not eligible. For example, I am not eligible to vote in BC because I am from out of province. I would not be able to vote in any elections, however, I still consider myself to be politically informed and active. Can we use the other question I proposed in place of this one? In regards to the most recent, past provincial election, did you: A) Vote B) Not Vote C) Were Not Eligible D) Prefer Not to Answer.

Lastly, I don't understand our motive behind asking the respondents if they think media affects voting behaviour. I feel like societal discourse has taught us to believe that media affects politics directly. The purpose of our survey is to prove (as best as we can) whether or not this is true. How does everyone else feel?

Well, if our goal is to see if media effects politics directly, public perception of the effect media has should at least be something worth looking at. As I said above, I'm really not at all adamant about having the fifth question I wrote included. Feel free to delete if a better question comes up (we are supposed to have 5, no?).

As for "prefer not to answer" - it won't skew data if this response isn't included. If somebody chooses not to answer, you can just enter a null response when compiling data. I've personally only rarely seen "prefer not to answer" on a survey. What's more, I don't really think asking somebody if they voted is terribly personal - at least hardly more personal than asking them how often they use media. All that said, it's a pretty minor issue; including "prefer not to answer" doesn't really bother me. If "prefer not to answer" is an option for question 4, though, somebody will have to edit it "prefer not to answer" for other questions as well.

Finally, I like Kristen's formulation of the 4th question. It seems the least troublesome.

I agree that we keep "prefer not answer" as an option, although voting behaviour is not that a personal thing. There might be few people who are not willing to tell and incase of the situation that respondents choose an option that they don't really want to choose in fact. That would undermine the truthness of our data.

With regard to the purpose of the research, it is not only to "prove" the colleration between the media and voting turnout, but it would also be interesting to see in what ways are the related.(e.g. what kind of media is most effective in sparking people's interests and participation in politics). This kind of question has practical implication for political compaign.

With regard to the Question that Kristen proposed: how often do you use this form of media? 1. everyday 2. 2-3 times a week 2. once a week 3. once a month 4. less than once a month, I think we might modify the options as the following: 1.everyday 2.3-5 times a week 3. 2-3 times a week 4. once a week 5. less than once a week 6. Never We'd better to spread to options that everyone is able to find the options that most accurately reflect the reality. What do you guys think?