[IP] more on Q re your study re Americans' attitudes toward Muslims
Begin forwarded message:
From: Lee Tien <tien@xxxxxxx>
Date: December 19, 2004 5:05:43 PM EST
To: David Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>, Cliff Bamford <bamford@xxxxxx>
Subject: Fwd: Re: Q re your study re Americans' attitudes toward Muslims
For IP, if you like -- I forwarded Cliff's comments to Dr. James
Shanahan, the contact listed in the Cornell document; this is what he
said.
Lee
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Cc: "Fred B. Schneider" <fbs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Erik Nisbet
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From: James Shanahan <jes30@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Q re your study re Americans' attitudes toward Muslims
Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 16:34:18 -0500
To: Lee Tien <tien@xxxxxxx>
Dear Lee:
Thanks for your note. I think the critic has some valid questions, as
would be the case with any survey.
The class method used has been successful for us in previous surveys.
Students work in the environment of the Survey Research Institute,
where their activities are monitored as in any survey research
facility. Are they more enthusiastic than other callers would be? I'm
not sure, but there is no focus on the newsworthiness of their results
in their training. Our survey center employs students in their calling
activities on other surveys.
We didn't say the study was peer-reviewed. We will in due course
publish in peer-reviewed journals as we have done with data from
previous years of the survey.
There was also a criticism that the questions about Muslims were in the
context of other questions about civil liberties. We use introductory
text prior to each section of questions to help the respondent
understand that we're moving on to new topics.
Our results are fairly close to what other surveys have shown. For
instance, the Pew Center reported the following data in their Views on
Islam poll.
QUESTION NUMBER: 510
QUESTION:
Thinking about the Muslim religion for a moment...Would you say you
have generally favorable or unfavorable opinion of Islam?
RESULTS:
Favorable - 39%
Unfavorable - 37
No opinion - 24
Another interesting point is that a Zogby poll reported that about 26%
of Muslims surveyed had experienced some form of racial profiling.
I would agree that respondents could have very different reasons for
supporting restrictions. I've been getting lots of email from people
who agree with the critic's comments.
Sorry, I can't add more right at this point, but feel free to let any
of the members of your list contact me if they have further questions.
James Shanahan jes30@xxxxxxxxxxx
Department of Communication 607-255-8058
Associate Professor/International Professor
Editor, Mass Communication and Society
314 Kennedy Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
http://www.comm.cornell.edu/faculty/shanahan.html
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