[Mb-civic] FW: CSICOP Online: Explaining Majority Support for Stem Cell Research:

[George R. Milman]

FYI.

 


 Science and the Media logo <http://www.csicop.org/scienceandmedia/logo.png>



Explaining Majority Support for Stem Cell Research:


Did Communication Efforts Trump Moral Values in 2004?


Matthew Nisbet
November 15, 2004 

In the days following the Presidential election, many media observers
arrived at an interpretation of Bush's victory as driven by a voter focus on
morality and values. Contrary to pollsters and campaign strategists who in
the lead up to the election predicted that the war in Iraq, terrorism, the
economy, and jobs would be the major themes that would decide the
Presidential race, immediate post-election press analysis dubbed the outcome
a matter of
<http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=6703901>
"Guns, God, and Gays." As support for the explanation, many reporters cited
exit poll results that showed moral values to be the most important issue
named by voters. They also noted that nearly a quarter of voters nationwide
were white Evangelical Christians with seven out of ten Evangelicals voting
for Bush. A recent analysis <http://www.languagemonitor.com/wst_page19.html>
finds that since the election "moral values" has been used in more than
4,000 press stories. 

In conversations and circulated emails across universities during election
week, many colleagues almost immediately began to question the moral values
interpretation. When I discussed the issue in a course I teach on
<http://www.inquiringminds.org/education/syllabus-nisbet.html> "Quantitative
Reasoning for Journalists," several of the journalism students shared my
skepticism. Confronted with tight deadlines, immense uncertainty, a
compelling narrative, and an explanation that fit with their East coast
tastes, the simplicity of the moral values explanation seemed too convenient
and easy a fit for many reporters. By the end of election week, others in
the media had criticized the moral values interpretation. (See, for example,
Howard Kurtz
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32818-2004Nov7.html> 's
column.) 

More in depth analysis of the complexities of the election will help sort
out the accuracy of this first draft of history. Already, a survey report by
the Pew <http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=233>  Center
for the People & the Press casts some doubt on the moral values
interpretation. According to the Pew report, the relative importance of
moral values depends greatly on how the question is asked. In response to
the question "What mattered most to your vote?," the post-election survey
finds that when moral values is included as a response option against issues
like Iraq and terrorism, a plurality (27%) cites moral values as most
important to their vote. But when a separate group of voters were not
provided response options, and were asked to name - in their own words - the
most important factor in their vote, significantly fewer (14%) mentioned
moral values. 

To Read More of This Column Visit:
http://www.csicop.org/scienceandmedia/stem-cell/

Please do not respond to the listserv.  Comments on the column should be
address to Matt Nisbet at nisbetmc at yahoo.com

Other comments should be addressed to:  skeptinq at aol.com

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.islandlists.com/pipermail/mb-civic/attachments/20041115/b51be7ac/attachment.htm