First hour: Discussing what happened with polling for the 2020 election, and how the polling industry may change
Second hour: Should news and media literacy be required courses in schools?
Can we ever trust the polls again? That's what many Americans are wondering after the presidential election saw Donald Trump once again out-perform many of the expectations set by state and national polls. What went wrong? This hour, we talk to a pollster from Siena, a data analyst, and a professor who studies polling. They analyze the results and they explain how polling is done. They also discuss what kinds of changes might have to happen to make sure polls are still accurate enough to be helpful in the future. Our guests:
- Joseph Burgess, data curator for the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at Cornell University
- Don Levy, director of the Siena College Research Institute
- David Primo, Ani and Mark Gabrellian Professor, and professor of political science and business administration at the University of Rochester
Then in our second hour, “Can your generation distinguish reliable from unreliable information on the internet? How much do you think that matters?” The New York Times recently posed those two questions in an article about news and media literacy. The focus was on young people, and the value of critical thinking skills. Should news and media literacy should be required courses in schools? How can people of all generations better distinguish between trusted sources and misinformation? Our guests weigh in:
- Peter Adams, senior vice president of education for the News Literacy Project
- Jaclyn Siegel, New York State chapter leader for Media Literacy Now
- Mike Johansson, principal lecturer in the School of Communication at RIT, and social media strategist
