How the Media Insight Project survey was conducted

The Associated Press

The Media Insight Project survey on news consumption and perceptions among Hispanic and African-American audiences was conducted from Jan. 9-Feb. 16 by NORC at the University of Chicago. It is based on landline and cellphone interviews with a nationally representative random sample of 1,492 adults. Interviews included 1,006 respondents on landline telephones and 486 on cellphones. The sample included oversamples of 318 non-Hispanic African- American adults and 358 Hispanic adults.

The Media Insight Project is an initiative of the American Press Institute and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The McCormick Foundation, the Maynard Institute and New America Media also collaborated on the study. The survey was conducted with funding from the American Press Institute and the McCormick Foundation.

Digits in the phone numbers dialed were generated randomly to reach households with unlisted and listed landline and cellphone numbers.

Interviews were conducted in both English and Spanish.

As is done routinely in surveys, results were weighted, or adjusted, to ensure that responses accurately reflect the population’s makeup by factors such as age, sex, education, race/ethnicity and region. In addition, the weighting took into account patterns of phone use — landline only, cellphone only and both.

No more than 1 time in 20 should chance variations in the sample cause the results to vary by more than plus or minus 3.6 percentage points from the answers that would be obtained if all adults in the U.S. were polled. For results among African-American respondents, it is plus or minus 7.9 percentage points, and 8.5 points for results among Hispanic respondents.

There are other sources of potential error in polls, including the wording and order of questions.

The questions and results are available at http://www.MediaInsight.org.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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