more on Q re your study re Americans' attitudes toward Muslims

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lee Tien <tien () eff org>
Date: December 19, 2004 5:05:43 PM EST
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>, Cliff Bamford <bamford () oz net>
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 () cs cornell edu>, Erik Nisbet 
<ecn1 () cornell edu>
From: James Shanahan <jes30 () cornell edu>
Subject: Re: Q re your study re Americans' attitudes toward Muslims
Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 16:34:18 -0500
To: Lee Tien <tien () eff org>

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 () cornell edu
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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