Vox pops which are published in newspapers are often very different to vox pops on radio or television. Radio and television tend to concentrate only on the third type of vox pop: the street poll.
There would typically be only one or two questions, and very few interviews would be used. No attempt is made to say that this is what society generally thinks about the issue. It is just what these few ordinary people said when they were asked. Newspapers can also operate in the same way, asking one or two questions which will get a few lively quotes on an issue.
This can make a bright and interesting item in the newspaper. However, newspapers can also use the other two kinds of survey. If they can afford it, they may employ a market research company or a university to do a proper public opinion survey or, for much less money, they can do their own limited survey.
Many newspapers do a combination of the limited survey and the street poll. This can give a story with reasonable statistical evidence about the way people think and feel; but which also has some lively quotes to stop it becoming dull. We shall talk first about newspapers, since their vox pops can be more complex. At the end of the next chapter we will talk about the ways in which radio and television vox pops are different.
Remember, though, that a lot of what we say about newspapers will also apply to broadcasters, so read the whole of both chapters whichever news medium you work in. It is never a journalist's job to twist or misrepresent the news.
You must try to report fairly and honestly what is being done and said and thought. It is especially easy to give a false impression of what the public are thinking, through a vox pop which is carried out in a careless or deliberately biased way.
Special care is therefore needed to make a vox pop fair and honest. There are questions which are designed to invite a particular answer.
These are called loaded questions. If you ask people: "Do you think young people should have the opportunity for discipline and training in National Service? If you ask the same people: "Should young people be forced into National Service? The words "have the opportunity" in the first question suggested that National Service is something which young people want.
The word "forced" in the second question suggested that it is something which they do not want. It is not fair to ask loaded questions in a vox pop or in any other kind of interview. Try to make your questions neutral, such as: "Do you think there should be National Service for young people?
There are also tricky questions, to which there is no answer that cannot be twisted. If you ask a man: "Have you stopped beating your wife? If he says "yes", he is admitting that he used to beat her; if he says "no", it appears that he is still beating her! Make all questions so that they can be answered in a way which truly represents the views of the people you are interviewing.
In a street poll keep the number of questions to no more than six. In a proper public opinion survey, the company will have elaborate ways to make sure that the sample interviewed is a fair cross-section of society. For a limited survey or a street poll you cannot be so precise, but you should still try. I often say that my role at the BBC as home editor is to tell the story of changing Britain. I do quite a lot of "vox-popping", in different forms, because if we want to understand our country, I believe we must take the time to find out what the populace feels and thinks.
Some may argue that Brexit is, in large part, a consequence of our leaders failing to hear the voice of the people; the widespread sense that the "elite" are not listening, out of touch and aloof. For decades, mainstream politics avoided the subject of immigration, for example. Only by listening to the conversation at the bus stop or the chat in the cafe would you have learned of the disquiet communities felt at rapid demographic change and the consequences of globalisation, anxieties that often only emerged over a second cup of tea.
A vox pop, well conducted, can be a highly effective way to test public opinion and mood. Traditional polling is quite a blunt tool. It is good at telling you, broadly, what people say in answer to certain questions - and there is a science to the results. But it is less good at understanding why people answer the way they do. You need to probe beyond question one and, quite probably, beyond question two and three too. When you give people the time and the space to explain themselves, you start to reveal the gradations, the passions and the confusions that characterise all our views.
In a democracy, incoherent or illogical opinions are no less important than the most cogent and consistent. Understanding misunderstanding is essential. Even stopping people randomly in some High Street and asking them about a pressing topic has value, if you take the trouble to listen, to probe and to listen again. But even better is to chat to people in a more relaxed setting, in a works canteen or social club or public bar. It pays to ensure that an accurate mix of genders and races are represented, appropriate to the population being surveyed.
Here's an example of how some vox pops can add interest to a news item on genetically modified foods. At some point in the story the journalist would say something like "meanwhile, public opinion is still divided Home : Video : Interviews : Vox Pop. I think we've seen this product arrive on our shelves in a tearing hurry, without any long-term case histories available for us to look at any possible harm.
I think that basically science enters every part of our existence anyhow. Scientists have been genetically modifying animals and things since the beginning of time, so no, I don't have much of a problem with it. I mean, it's coming up to the year , the new millennium, we're going to have new changes, aren't we?
0コメント