Welcome to News and Current Events 301! For this
week, we will cover five polls as covered by Gallup.
This Unit is the Gallup
Poll unit. It will deal with 5 polls that helped influence political events
this year. In addition, there is a Gallup Event on “Religion, Wellbeing, and
Health.”
For Gallup, the months of August and October were the
strongest for polls that described the political landscape:
1) Approval
Rating of Congress
2) A
description what a “likely voter” is
3) Initial
reactions to Paul Ryan
4) Americans’
Top Priorities for the next President.
(The above in is addition to the religion coverage)
We will go in order as the above.
Americans’ Views of
Congress Revert to All-Time Low
August 16th, 2012: Just about three months before
the election, Gallup Poll released their date on approval ratings for Congress.
Keeping in mind the recent elections, answer these questions.
Discussion:
1) In
what other month had the lowest approval rating been reached?
2) What
is the percentage of people that approve of Congress?
3) Where
has Congressional Approval typically averaged?
4) When
was the high point of Congressional approval? What event happened then? Was it
an outlier?
5) Knowing
this, would you have advised Romney to pick Paul Ryan as a running mate?
Long Question: Keeping in mind the results of the
Congressional elections this year, is the result surprising? Why or why not?
Election Matters: The
Lowdown on Likely Voters
October 8th, 2012: Election Matters is a segment that Gallup
runs every election and explains the different issues in play for the different
candidates. This episode, they discussed “likely voters.” Likely voters are not
the demographic of all of those who like a candidate, but instead are those
that Gallup deems most likely to show up and vote on election day.
Discussion:
1) What
did the poll about the first (Presidential) debate say?
2) What
group did Obama still have a favorable lead for (Registered or likely)?
3) Who
does better amongst likely voters?
4) Why
did they think the election was too close to call?
Long Question: Keeping in mind the results of the election,
the outcome of certain states, the outcome in certain swing states, AND the way
in which they were first projected on media news outlets, are you surprised
that the election turned out the way it did?
Election Matters:
Americans’ Initial Reactions to Paul Ryan
Link: http://www.gallup.com/video/156659/election-matters-americans-initial-reactions-paul-ryan.aspx
August 14th, 2012: The American public is
introduced to Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney’s running mate as Vice President in the
Presidential election. Gallup reported their initial findings on this edition
of Election Matters.
Discussion:
1) What
was the American public’s initial reaction to Paul Ryan?
2) How
does this compare to Sarah Palin’s reaction?
3) Did
the choice more Americans more or less likely to vote Republican?
4) Why
is Paul Ryan running for the state different than voting for him for the House?
Long Question: Considering the American public’s reactions…
do you think Paul Ryan was a good pick as the Republican Vice-Presidential
candidate?
Americans’ Top
Priorities for the Next President
August 2, 2012: Gallup Poll releases what Americans think
are the top priorities for the Next President.
Discussion:
1) What
was the top priority?
2) What
was the next one?
3) Considering
how many people wanted to restore Medicare, was it still a good pick for Paul
Ryan as running mate?
4) How
many people considered global warming to be a top priority? What about taxes on
the wealthy?
Long Question: Considering the top (And lower) priorities
mentioned, who had the most priorities in common with the American people? Did
the outcome of the popular vote surprise you at the end of the election?
Gallup Event:
Religion, Wellbeing, and Health—Part 1
February 20th, 2012: Gallup has an event in which
it describes the findings in a recent poll on religion. The results were that
people had positives feelings when it came to religion. NOTE: Since this is an
hour-long presentation, we will only be discussing the first 3 presenters (up
to the 30-minute mark, roughly).
Discussion:
1) What
is subjective wellbeing? How is it measured?
2) Describe
the method using the buzzer.
3) What
did Gallup find about church attendance, etc.?
4) What
was the sample size? What is its significance?
5) How
many people have no religious identity, but are classified as very religious?
6) What
was the “least religious, religious group” that they looked at?
7) What
is the most religious state in the USA?
8) What
are the 6 domains? Which one is the exception to the rule?
9) The
more religious you are, what are you likely to do in terms of taking care of
yourself?
10) How do they avoid the self-perception bias?
11) Do you get happier as you become more
religious?
12) What
specifically about makes religious people happy?
13) What happens the more frequently you go to
church?
14) What was their methodology?
15) What is the best day of the week, according to
ONLY religious people?
16) What is
the correlation between church attendance and happiness?
17) If you don’t feel God’s presence, what
happens?
18) If you have close friends in organizations,
work, etc. but do NOT have close friends at church OR don’t go to church, what
happens to happiness?
19) Compare
close friends at church to close friends outside of church.
Long Question: If you are religious, what about church makes
you happy in the moment? If you are not religious, what makes you happiest?
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