End of the Semester

Well my public opinion class is coming to an end. Classes are over and my final project is to compile a portfolio on everything I have completed this semester. I just wanted to post one last time and say that I have learned a lot about public opinion from my course, especially regarding the issue I have focused on all semester, embryonic stem cell research. I have learned that this issue has a very short history and that many people express their opinions in polls even when they do not really know much about an issue (I include myself as one who expresses opinions on issues I think I know about and really don't!). I have learned a lot about my issue not only with polling on the issue, but factual information I did not know before I took this class. For instance, I never knew the first embryonic stem cell was extracted in 1998 and that polls did not begin centering on this issue until 2001. I also will admit that I did not understand Bush's policy on banning federal funding for the research, which is my own fault because I just listened to one piece of the information and based my opinion on that. Overall, I have to say that I would not depend solely on public opinion polls to show how America feels about an issue, but I think expressing our opinions, whether formed from facts or misinformation, is vital in a democratic society that embraces our first Amendment right of the freedom of speech.

Alternative to Polling

My final paper in my public opinion class is to discuss an alternative means of finding public opinion. The author of the book we are focusing on for this unit, James Fishkin, makes the argument that people's responses to polling questions are different when they all meet and discuss the issue. This allows all respondents to be informed and make decisions based on that knowledge. While this would not allow a scientific sample, it is interesting and affirms that respondents will answer polling questions when they don't know about an issue. Fishkin also argues that public opinion should not be all that important to politics when the results of the polls are based on answers by uninformed people. He discusses something called deliberative polling, which allows respondents to discuss the issue and then answer questions regarding their opinions.
My paper will center on this method. My idea is to recruit respondents who can gain internet access and allow them to discuss the issue in an online discussion or chat room. This allows respondents the opportunity to voice their opinions in privacy. I know that everyone does not have Internet access, however; my idea is to recruit respondents through the mail and allow them time to find access to a computer with Internet. For example, people may have friends who have the Internet, the library has the Internet, and some people have Internet at work. If respondents can gain this access, the issue of not having the Internet decreases. With the Internet being available worldwide, this allows a substantially large amount of people to participate. Many people are on the Internet or their computers throughout the day which can encourage participation. In order to access the chat room or discussion, there would be questions they have to answer first in order to see where they stand on the issue prior to discussing it. At the end, they would re-answer the questions to show how much public opinion changed due to their deliberations. This is just the beginning of my brainstorming and I will post more as I write this paper.

Focus Group

Yesterday I conducted a focus group about stem cell research, more specifically embryonic stem cell research. The purpose was to discover the opinions of the participants. All participants were volunteers and said they all had an opinion on the issue. There were a total of 7 participants from my community. I asked them all first with a show of hands who was for or against this research. I was happy to see that the group was pretty split with 4 being in favor and 3 being opposed. All those in favor maintained their position when the focus group was finished with their discussion while 1 person who was opposed actually changed his mind because he stated that he thought he knew what embryonic stem cell research was but through the focus group, realized it was something completely different and changed his position to favoring the research. The other 2 who were opposed were still in opposition whenthe group finished. While I will be writing a 15-20 page paper on the focus group's discussion, I will let viewers know some things that were said although not everything will be revealed here. First, I was quite pleased that everyone participated and was respectful. They all were interested in learning exactly what the research is regardless of whether or not they changed their minds at the end. All 7 had some idea as to what the research is and what it is used for. Even if part of their answer was incorrect, they still had some correct idea. For example, 2 people knew stem cells were extracted from fertilized eggs, however, they both believed that the cells were extracted from an egg that was already fertilized inside a woman. When asked the question as to what the difference was between embryonic stem cells and human stem cells, one person believed that human stem cells are used to find cures for people who have diseases while embryonic stem cells could only be used for pre-birth deformities that have been discovered during pregnancy. It was interesting to watch people who knew more about the issue to correct those who were misinformed. For instance, one woman said that you cannot help an embryo because if it had deformities, it would abort itself (miscarriage). All in all, the 2 who were in opposition really opposed embryonic stem cell research, but approved of human stem cell research.

Public Approval/Trust Relating to Embryonic Stem Cell Research

In class yesterday, we discussed political trust and public approval. While the issue I am working on is relatively new (within the last decade), I have seen a few polling questions that I believe relate to my topic and what we discussed in class. For example, when Obama overturned the ban, the public was asked if they approve or disapprove of his decision. More than 1/2 approved. Also when questions ask if federal funding should be set aside for this research, I believe it shows political trust because the public is depending on the government to make the decisions about funding according to public opinion. When polls first began on this issue in 2001, those who favored federal funding was a little less than 1/2 while that increased to more than 1/2 by 2009. There has not been a large discrepency in numbers since 2001 but when this first became publicized in politics, Bush made a policy regardless of public opinion. I know that public opinion is important in politics and can change policies in government, but based on the findings of my research on polling, it appears that the public is not the ultimate decision maker. Rather, it seems that the next political candidate will use what the previous political did as the opposite of what s/he will do. However, as I said this issue is new and it will take a few more decades of polling and government policies to confirm any trends and changes regarding this issue. Also, I did find a question from 2004 during the presidential elections that asked respondents if Bush's view and Kerry's view on stem cell research would influence who they vote for and 40% said it would not.

Embryonic Stem Cell Research Becomes a Political Issue in 1999

As I have been researching the history of my topic and polling I found that embryonic stem cell research did not really become a political issue until 1999. Scientists and the National Institute for Health looked for funding from the federal government to advance their research. During the decade of trying to extract stem cells from human embryos, the research was privately funded. In 1999 when they went to the federal government there had already been a ban in place on funding any kind of research using human embryos (this may have had a lot to do with the cloning issue). Either way, Clinton and other government officials decided the moral cost did not outweigh the potential benefits and granted funding. Still at this time, polls were not conducted on the issue, rather it was just a political issue that really hadn't caught people's attention yet. The main people who paid attention were opponents, groups who were opposed to Roe v. Wade. They believe life begins at conception which is the basis of their argument. In this type of research, the egg must be fertilized and after one week, the cells are extracted and the potential for life no longer exists. Having to fertilize the egg is ultimately where the controversy arises. At the beginning, news reports treated this issue like a breakthrough in science and pretty much reported on the facts. Controversy wasn't really presented in the media other than that it may stir up debates. Polling on the issue began in 2001 when the political basis of the issue was brought to the forefront of the media. When the federal government began debating the issue polls began and continued from there. Bush did not change government restrictions until after the polling began and despite a majority in favor of the research, he made his decision which seems to be based on personal feelings rather than that of the public. Researching the historical arena of this issue is quite short, but it is very interesting to look at an issue that began during my lifetime which helps me understand more where the country stood regarding this issue.

Poll Question from 2000

I forgot to post the link of the question from 2000 so here it is:

http://webapps.ropercenter.uconn.edu/cfide/psearch_test/webroot/multquestion_view.cfm?QSTN_ID2=431859&qid=+431859&pid=4&ccid=0&x=82&y=9

Poll Question from 2000

I posted yesterday that the earliest poll I found concerning the issue of embryonic stem cell research was from 2001. However, I found a polling question from 2000 about stem cell research from the Kaiser Foundation. The foundation administered a poll to find out what important issues the public was following in the media. They do these polls in order to help the media know what to report and how much information they are conveying to the public. The question was asking respondents how closely they have followed news coverage of stem cell research. 56% reported they were not at all closely following the story. This may have also been asked due to the upcoming presidential election in 2000. Then in 2001, President Bush banned federal funding for stem cell research and it became a hot topic in the media and among the public. In 2001 poll organizations began asking the public their opinions regarding the issue. I also found out through research that this issue does not have a long history in the polls because stem cells were not extracted from embryos until 1998 when a man named James Thompson from Wisconsin University successfully did this. He is the head of the regenerative biology lab there. His website is posted below.

http://stemcells.wisc.edu/faculty/thomson.html