Journalistic Standards and Practices
IV. PRODUCTION STANDARDS
A: INFORMATION GATHERING
2. PUBLIC OPINION SURVEYS
Polling and random sampling are two common techniques used to survey public opinion. They are used to discover facts, uncover attitudes and verify hypotheses. The data collected by these techniques constitutes the basis of various studies and reports published by government, lobbyists, single-interest groups, researchers and journalistic organizations.
To ensure the validity and reliability of their results, surveys of public opinion must be conducted according to tested methods and recognized standards. Any departure from methods or standards and other relevant information on the techniques or funding of such research should be made known to the public.
The CBC assumes full responsibility for the operation and quality of the surveys it decides to conduct.
All survey initiatives must be authorized in advance by the senior officer in information programming who must also approve the final questionnaire personally or through an authorized delegate.
CBC Research must participate in all steps of the survey, from original design to the interpretation of the results, and must assume the responsibility of ensuring the highest standards.
During the five days prior to voting in an election or referendum, the CBC will not broadcast the results of public opinion surveys it has commissioned. This does not preclude the commissioning of surveys during this period if they are intended for broadcast after the election or referendum.
2.2 BROADCASTING RESULTS OF SURVEYS
Prior to broadcasting results of any non-CBC survey, the CBC journalists concerned are expected to:
(a) obtain all necessary information on the methods used, as well as the main results of the survey;
(b) compare the interpretation of the results by the authors of the study with the opinions of other experts in the field;
(c) seek the advice of CBC Research as to the validity of the methods used and the interpretation of the results.
In broadcasting the results of surveys, CBC journalists must:
(a) give prominence to the actual data over interpretations of that data;
(b) report the name of the person or organization conducting the survey and, where relevant, their political party affiliation, the name of the sponsor, the population surveyed, the size of the sample, the period during which the survey was conducted, the response rate and the margin of error;
(c) avoid leaving any impression that public opinion surveys are predictive.
Surveys that are not conducted according to recognized standards do not provide valid results nor reliable information.
Special care must be exercised in the presentation, whether live or pre-recorded, of statements gathered through interviews with randomly selected persons, such as convention delegates or the audience of an open-line program. Comments gathered this way must be presented for the sole purpose of illustrating the range and texture of popular opinion. Care must be taken not to suggest that such presentations reflect the distribution or weight of opinion in the community on one or another side of a question. Similarly, while the contents of the comments may be summarized, under no circumstances must any numerical tally of comments received on either side of a topic be given.
"Telephone votes", where callers are invited to phone to a pair or group of off-air telephone numbers which mechanically count their "vote" on a question, are open to manipulation by any pressure group. They have no information value and may be misleading.
The CBC does not conduct telephone votes nor broadcast results of such votes.
