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Journalists use public opinion data to ground stories in evidence, elevate public voices, and tell richer, more accurate stories—not just what happened, but how people feel about it—and why that matters. During this Roper Roundtable, accomplished journalists Ariel Edwards-Levy, Philip Bump, and Nathaniel Rakich shared their experiences using polling data in journalism and conducting analysis to make accurate statements about complicated social phenomena. The webinar included a question-and-answer session, allowing participants to engage directly with the presenters.
Murray Edelman and Joe Lenski, the 2025 winners of the Warren J. Mitofsky Award for Excellence in Public Opinion Research, shared the current methods for exit poll results and projections and how they've evolved since 1967, along with their personal stories and challenges as the people who designed them.
Laron Williams, Frederick A. Middlebush Chair of Political Science at the University of Missouri’s Truman School of Government and Public Affairs, discussed the second release of the Most Important Problem Dataset (MIPD), a valuable resource for researchers analyzing public opinion on the nation's most pressing issues.