Why, oh why, oh why, would anyone treat an online poll like a scientifically-conducted one? The Globe and Mail's Ivor Tossell was wondering much the same thing.
He spent much time looking at the debacle of the "Worst Canadian" poll conducted by the Beaver, a history magazine, and how the media treated its findings.
This brings us to the real villains of the story. I don't think the problem here is with the doofus poll, or the online types who had their way with it.
The problem is with the headlines that appeared around the world the next day.
"Worst Canadian Ever," read the Toronto Sun's front page, with lip-smacking satisfaction, over a picture of Trudeau.
"Trudeau tops list of '10 worst Canadians,' " trumpeted the headline in the Montreal Gazette.
" 'Rock star' ex-PM Trudeau is worst Canadian - poll," said Reuters, a headline that appeared in varying forms from Scotland to South Africa.
"Local singer-activist proud to be second-worst Canadian," added the Winnipeg Free Press.
The story was news gold. It was the rare Canadian outlet that could resist playing up the poll's findings instead of the small but salient detail that the poll was, you know, entirely without merit. To be sure, many of these same news outlets later printed columns and editorials that excoriated the poll, some of them excoriating The Beaver for releasing it.
But The Beaver didn't misrepresent the nature of its poll. It was candid about the "unscientific nature" of its study. (Though I might add that when the press release announcing your survey's findings comes with an implicit apology for its methods, you might wish to think twice about the endeavour.)
It was the media that picked up the poll and played it as fact. A provocative poll or study is a sure bet for an eye-grabbing story. And what better source than an online poll that 15,000 people answered?
Alas, of all the iffy sources that wind up on the wrong end of a news report, uncontrolled online polls are surely the iffiest.
But headlines about online polls seldom disclose their unreliability, nor do they often distinguish them from scientifically controlled polling. A casual reader flipping through stories won't know at a glance that the news is bogus.It may well be that Trudeau has fewer fans west of Thunder Bay than Posh Spice has south of Tikrit. But online polls about either topic will tell you less about reality than about the extent to which vested interests are able to manipulate the results.
The Internet, by its very nature, will always have a ready supply of dippy information to offer. The media doesn't do anyone a favour by giving it credulous headlines. Shoot the messenger: That's my vote.
This posting on the late, great CBC Facebook project is useful related reading.