Zeitschrift für Massenkommunikation und Journalismus

Purposive or Accidential! Why Polls Mislead the Public About the Next US President?

Abstract

Fatma Elzahraa Elsayed

This study involves the controversial role that public opinion surveys played during the American presidential elections 2016 that has acquired exclamation marks due to the evident conflict between reports of mass media, particularly the private ones, that placed the democratic candidate, Clinton, ahead in the race while results comes directly the opposite. The study applied “Time for Change” approach and includes three sections; first, the methodology, questions, and objectives. Secondly, the theoretical part and mechanisms of the survey centers, reasons leading to failure in achieving sound results, and the political and economic effects of the newspapers’ agendas in guiding the survey results Thirdly, the last section demonstrates the findings that include: the major reasons that enabled Trump to overcoming the intentional mass media disregard and finally the reasons that made his winning an unexpected shock.