The great national channels of India have done some surveys across the country. The great Republic tv, India today and Times now have released their surveys. The survey numbers are going around media, social media and people. Not much importance is given to the sample size. Winners and losers will be there in any election but if one goes deep into the numbers, the sample sizes of Times now survey is approximately 15,000 and India today is approximately 13000. (Numbers are subject to correction).
The average sample size per parliamentary constituency is 24 to 27 people. The average sample size per assembly constituency in India is 3.62. So now if we understand this calculation, Number of candidates might be more than the sample size across the country. What mood of the nation does these surveys project? They are only trying to push/rub opinions onto the people. Every media house who publish these surveys as articles should put the sample size in bold letters so that people who watch those surveys will not be fooled.
Each one of them might have their own favorites, there is no problem but if media houses show their favorites it is a very dangerous threat to democracy. The channels might be local or national, biased news channels are dangerous for the neutral people watching from outside. Across Andhra Pradesh, only 600 to 650 people opinion are taken. These surveys don’t have a scientific backing because at least 2 to 3 percent of the population’s opinion should be collected to give a decent opinion or mood of the nation or national approval ratings.
So, my opinion is any survey which doesn’t collect a decent number of samples which is believable by public or else it’s better not to do these surveys and fool the people. If anyone has a different opinion on my view, I welcome to see all of your feedback in the comments.
– Anoop
