Changes in Media Polling in Recent Presidential Campaigns: Moving from Good to “Average” at CNN

A paper by Michael W. Traugott, spring 2009 fellow, details the problematic rise of the “poll of polls,” an average of other organizations’ recent data rather than new information gathered by the news organization itself. This paper reviews how polling has changed in recent decades, compares CNN’s polling from 2004 to its polling in 2008, and considers the likely future of the “poll of polls” technique.

Download the paper (PDF).