Join the Caledonian Mercury online focus group
February 23, 2010 by Stewart Kirkpatrick · 42 Comments
Picture: Brian Hillegas
The focus group will work by readers completing a number of short surveys during the election campaign, starting with this one to provide a benchmark.
This is not an opinion poll as the participants are a self-selecting group. Instead our surveys will identify how the attitudes of the supporters of the various parties change during the run-up to polling day. After the election campaign has begun in earnest we will run an additional survey each week to see how opinions have shifted.
The questionniares are entirely anonymous. There are questions on how you voted in the past, how you may vote in the future and what issues concern you. There are also demographic and geographical questions so we can identify patterns across Scottish society.
Please take part and start filling out the first survey.
Related posts:
- Take part in our pre-election focus group
- Online focus group: TV debates affect how one in eight vote
- Online focus group shows shift from Labour to SNP
- Welcome to the Caledonian Mercury
- Companies see election as battle between Tories and Lib Dems
- This week’s winner of the Caledonian Mercury ‘comment of the week’
- The previous incarnations of the Caledonian Mercury
- The Caledonian Mercury/Jura ‘comment of the week’ prize
- This week’s winner of the Caledonian Mercury ‘comment of the week’
- Caledonian Mercury team up with Scotland on Facebook
If anyone has strong political views it is very doubtful if he/she is going to change in the few weeks to the election. There are devious characters around who could be tempted to lodge false answers for political purposes. Consequently your poll results could turn out to be meaningless.
I think a focus group has to be selected as representative of the population as a whole, not allow a specialised group (those who read the CM) to select themselves. By definition they could not be a focus group.
Tell me if I am wrong.
Your wrong Wee Willie Bee. Happy now?
But your right. Within your self selected limits.
Lets give CalMerc a real boost. Lets make something new happen in politics in Scotland. Support this.
BTW
Who is handling the Facebook and Twitters?
you want a bob a job
Stewart, I hope you won`t be too disappointed with the answer I gave to the question about paying for a printed version of the CalMerc. The reason is there is simply not enough political content.
I realise that resources are a very real issue and that this situation may not last forever, but, right now, there is an awful lot going on in politics but not much of it is covered here.
If we take today as an example, other key topics you might have covered include :-
1. The Electoral Commision`s report into the Glasgow N.E. by-election.
2. Jim Murphy targetting the “Religious” vote.
3. Cardinal Keith O`Brien`s simultaneous attack on the Labour government.
4. The contortions of the Labour party in seeking to deny Gordon Brown is a bully
5. The implications of a rising oil price on our reserves of oil previously
considered uneconomical to obtain.
6. The plan to allow countries to sell off fishing rights which could result in
Spain controlling fishing in Scotland`s waters.
As I said, I accept the limitations placed on you by the scale of your operation in comparison to your rivals and I can`t help you solve this problem, but I know a man who can. His name is Traquir.
Viva Traquir
?donde Traquir?
I agree completely with desmo.I completed the survey however I am still concerned at the way some major stories seem to be ignored.I just can’t accept that if the news stories from the English media had concerned Alex Salmond and John Swinney they would not be covered here by the Cal Merc.The Scottish media would be in meltdown to plunge in the knife.
Brown and Darling are Scottish MPs we should not have to rely on the London press to keep us informed.
I said yes to buying a print version of Caledonian Mercury because I think it’s very good overall but, really, the Outdoors section is truly exceptional and I would buy a print version on the strenght of that alone. I also think the other sections are top class but the Outdoors section seems simply more dynamic with more regular content, and there’s obviously a lot of passion for the subject matter. Great stuff.
As someone who has absolutely no idea about newspaper publishing, I reckon an experimental run of weekly editions would be a great idea, maybe printing to sell on a Saturday or, wait, maybe a Friday morning – yes, that would be it. Then you could buy your copy of CM on a Friday morning and mull over the Outdoors and Entertainment sections to gear yourself up for some weekend activity.
I’d go for that.
Dreaming, a pleasurable past time but not real.
You already know what I’m going to say. So I will keep it short
Paper newspapers are dying and the kingdom is in a fray as what to do. The future of news is here where you can see it at any time and, as a side, interaction is very attractive.
Sponsorship is looking and moving with the money. Paper news is attracting little new business and loosing some existing backers.
I would not invest in paper news as opposed to web based news.
More people are reading this than if I scrawled over a paper and left it on a bus.
I tried to take the survey, but couldn’t, since my postal vote didn’t reach my house until after I had had to go away during the last Scottish General Election, and there is nowhere to tick “Didn’t vote”.
Please note that my original comment was written before Desmos
I don’t want a print version as I prefer news online from my RSS reader, but wouldn’t mind having some way to subscribe or donate to you online to help pay for content.
Like Louise, I wouldn’t mind having some way to subscribe or donate to you online to help pay for content.
I said a straight yes to buying a printed version. But – that would depend upon the reliability, consistency and politics of the paper.
I boycotted the Daily Record in the 60’s and switched to the Herald. I was a faithful Herald fan and regular contributor to the ‘Letters to the Editor’ page until the Herald went down hill with Lord Gus MacDonald and even worse with other Unionist Gannets of the IMG group and whoever owns it now. I am not a member of the SNP – at the moment – but have boycotted the Herald and Scotsman because of its vitriolic stance against the SNP. There is not much to choose from in Scotland, as the whole English media hate headlines rail on and on and on about the SNP, screaming from the newsstands and dripping from the TV sets. We badly need an Independent minded media in Scotland and one that would fight for Scottish interests, as well as a progressive outlook worldwide.
The Herald chickened out of comments online. The Hootsmon barred me for daring to criticise Maddox, Peterkins and Barnes. Ironically the schizoid Daily Record allows my online comments under “republican scot”. (I hate those cowardly pseudonyms). Caley Mac has censored my replies to their tame hamster. Wot’s left?
There has been no one on the meejah scene to equal Arnold Kemp of the old Herald. PS. I saw Tam Shields in Bank St yesterday. I tried to wave from my car window but he was too busy eating a pie.
We need a campaign to sort this censorship
Isn’t terrible we feel the need because of blatant political bias?
Caledonian Mercury thank you for providing a place to air. discuss and debate.
the ebc ran a recent Independence Poll. http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/history/debates/home_rule/
They must be very unhappy with the results so much so that they have never been published anywhere that I have seen. This despite some un-answered correspondence to ask them why?
Will be interesting to see the Cal Merc results and if they support the general feeling in Scotland. Lets get them published and put an end to all the unionist propaganda.
~Yes I wondered about that, funny it has never been published but every morning Good Morning Scotland has at least one detrimental article.
Public opinion polls have an influence on the final vote. The reason is that people like to vote for the winning party, or so I am assured. There is also the discouragement felt as the polling day nears of seeing your favoured party’s vote collapsing.
If that is agreed then there is a real political advantage should the polls show your party is advancing and your nearest rival slipping downhill. To alter a poll is difficult if not impossible, and the larger it is the more difficult it becomes.
The CM proposes a focus group and invites members. I have already stated this is not a focus group as it is self selected.
Now how do I arrange to make the polls from this group give answers to the advantage of the political party I support? Easy! I get a large number of my party A to fill in the questionaire and say they vote for party B. As the weeks pass I get some of then to switch to party A and continue the process until shortly before polling day I get all the remainder to switch. I keep a fairly large proportion in reserve to the end for maximum effect. Result of this is that party B is apparently “in meltdown”. Activists are discouraged as what is the point of working delivering leaflets etc when the vote is clearly lost, and the real vote is affected.
This is a dirty trick. Since when did that stop some people?
What I suspect the newspapers do is to look at the poll and if it is to the advantage of the SNP it receives mimimal coverage or none at all, whereas an unfavourable one receives the full headline treatment. An unfavourable one can occur shortly after the SNP does something controversial or unpopular.
A genuine poll I would welcome. I would argue The Editor has to get a real focus group divorced from political extremists like me, though I would not stoop to the dirty trick described above, ever though I thought of it.
Shock horror, I must be really devious!
Stewart,
Would be interesting to see the results of this survey. I hope you publish them.
I think you should ask a lot more questions of your readers before considering launching a paper edition. I answered ‘yes’ but I also bought the Herald until recently because it was a bit more politically unbiased than the rest. But it’s been horribly exposed with recent events, playing down or ignoring important stories in Scotland and spinning them to their own ends. It is now no different from the Scotsman. It is easy to go on-line and get alternate points of view and facts. The readers comments on news sites in a lot of cases do more investigation than the journalists. A lot of people feel the same. Early days but the Mercury dosen’t seem much different from the rest so far – except you allow comments and the Herald dosen’t.
Dear all,
I certainly will be publishing the results of the survey. There’s already a few nuggets emerging but we want as large a sample size as possible so we’ll keep it open for a few days yet.
On print, thanks for the feedback. It’s confirmed in my mind that if we go ahead with a print version it should be quarterly. Very, very interesting.
Thanks,
Stewart Kirkpatrick
Editor, The Caledonian Mercury
May I ask why my completely innocuous comments were removed? They were not critical, nor offensive, so I’m baffled?
Are ALL of my comments being moderated now?
Brusque comment – Why should you get off?
No.
Stewart Kirkpatrick
Editor, The Caledonian Mercury
I’m not happy with the amount of personal information I would have to hand out there, the cynic in me is wondering if you’re looking for a lot of ABC1s for advertising purposes!
I get fed up reading people complaining about the Scotsman and the Daily Record. The answer to their bias political coverage ( maily written at Labout HQ)is really quite simple….STOP buying them. The Scotsmans readership has fallen quite a lot recently and there is no guessing why.
I, like many others, am fed up having propaganda shoved through my letter box. I may not be the brightest bulb in the box but I can make up my own mind if given the facts. Newspapers are treating their readers as idiots and might change when their numbers go down.
I was more than happy to fill out the survey……..honestly.
Re the focus group / survey.
As an old retired geezer, I’ve been voting for more years than I care to remember. I always (still do) considered myself as a socialist but I’ve never voted for Labour since the death of John Smith.
If, as I suspect from the comments submitted to CM, there are a considerable number of SNP supporters around these parts, it might be interesting to find out if they’re of the ‘joined the SNP at 16 years old’ (and still fairly young) or ’switched allegiance in later life’ variety.
Just a suggestion for later
I was a labour voter for years, almost wept with joy when Blair was striding down Downing Street in his blue shirt way back then – I’ll never vote Labour again.
I suspect that the ‘poll’ will show a massive support for independence simply because there are more independence minded online contributors.
I agree with Wee Willie Bee that this will be open to abuse and we must also note that anything editors may say can only be taken at face value – Newsnet Scotland included.
Newsnet Scotland ran a similar online poll over the Megrahi release weeks after the BBC’s notorious poll and found support for McAskill running at 10:1. It proved only that there were more people who supported McAskill willing to take the time to post their views.
I can’t remember the actual figures but it was close to 800 by the close of the poll. We posted links to The Scotsman, The Record and the BBC blog in order to cover as many people as possible.
I now count The Cally as part of the mainstream media herd having been disappointed with their coverage of lunchgate/lettergate etc and the very clear opportunity both offered to the ‘new kid’ to define itself as a maverick.
The Jim Murphy story in Newsnet Scotland was covered only by other blogs and, not surprisingly, ignored by the Scottish media who instead decided to jump onto the ‘rigged referendum’ story kindly offered up by the BBC who show a fondness for freedom of information requests that seem to dovetail nicely with Labour attacks.
Three big stories are currently hanging ripe ready for picking – By election Postal votes, the Drew Scott/Hughes Hallet paper into Labour’s proposed new tax powers for Holyrood and Jim Murphy’s months old tactic of using race and religion in order to save his/Labour’s skin in Scotland.
if covered properly they are potentially very, very damaging to Labour in Scotland – however they will be allowed to wither.
As another old retired geezer I changed to voting SNP when I started to use my brain, aged around 28, rather than accepting what I was told as truth. I do not support all of their policies, as I still use my brain, but for now they will do me.
As a little old lady who has voted for the SNP the whole of my life, maybe I am brighter than I thought. I HATED Tony Blair even before he got the leadership, and could only think that he has influence beyond the Labour Party to get that spot. Brown I also detest but that is because he belongs to the Scottish Mafia and having worked for the SNP in his former constituency and seen the dreadful workings of even the Community Council Labour Group there, could never vote for any of them even if the SNP vanished tomorrow.
hi there, i think the survey needs to be clearer when asking how people used their first and second votes, given that last time they swapped the first and second votes around from what they had been before. Even though they did that, I still think of my list vote as my “second vote” even though technically it was my first vote. hope that makes sense.
Wee Willie Bee
Whenever Caledonian Mercury decides to have a ‘BawBaw Of the week award ‘I thoroughly recommend you
Some questions are ambiguous. On pensions for example one may be in favour of bringing back the tax reliefs previously enjoyed by private schemes AND simultaneously want cuts in the over-generous public schemes. On public spending cuts being “very important”, that could mean that one was very concerned about them happening or very concerned about them NOT happening.
Where are these generous Public Pensions, I am in receipt of one of them and it does not exceed £10.000 a year. Many of my former colleagues receive considerably less several are on £2.500 a year. Funnily enough though I wish to see the return of the Tax relief for private pension schemes also as many of the Public Pensions are similarly affected. I do though follow what you are saying about the survey.
What we need from the CalMerc is honest reporting on all political events. I am personally in favour of independence but can still criticise the SNP on various policies like the drink debacle and smoking.
We need a newspaper that will expose the shenaigans of various councils and show up the propaganda emanating from Union Central in Westminster.
We need a newspaper that will criticise political parties for their stances on various problems and congratulate others for good work.
We need a newspaper that, when it sees wrongdoing, will pursue the wrongdoers until justice prevails.
We need a newspaper that is not afraid to take on the vested interests in Scotland.
We need a newspaper that will ask questions in the New Club and publish the answers.
We need a newspaper that will not necessarilly take the SNP line all the time. I don’t want a SNP version of the Daily Record.
Most of all, we need a newspaper that is not afraid to comment and is not afraid to be proved wrong.
All in all, we need a newspaper for Scots, by Scots!
“All in all, we need a newspaper for Scots, by Scots!”
Whit we need is a newspaper for Scots, bi Scots an IN SCOTS.
If a language is wordy o bein WRITTEN ABOOT, it maun shuirly be wordy o bein WRITTEN IN. If a language is wordy o bein SPOKEN ABOOT, it maun shuirly be wordy o bein SPOKEN IN.
I feel that if the CM delivers on honest and brave reporting Then the paper will grow and grow in readership. Take Rab he refuses to take the side of Labour briefings and as such is a breath of fresh air when reading his words.
Oh for scrutiny of Iain Grey’s budget proposals and the reasons he abstained in voting. Purcell and what Murphy knew of it.
We could also do with a foreign reporter who can tell us honestly how the Scottish Government is viewed abroad. I am sure that a seat on the plane would be made available Stewart. We really need a fresh approach in journalism and by goodness there is huge demand. Come on Cal Merc give us what we want
So now that the big Orf is upon us … will the Focus group be starting up again ? New questions … ?? See where the land now lies ??
Are you posting up the results of the survey pre-london election?
I was just reminded about this survey today………………when will the results be posted for us all to see?
So… whatever happened to the online focus group? I certainly haven’t been asked anything since I took the online survey several weeks ago.