| Abstract: | A mail survey of 129 contact persons for polling organizationrevealed that 62 per cent of the firms from which responseswere received do not go back before 1980. Many respondents werethemselves newcomers, who had found their way into polling viapolitics and showed less commitment to the professional ethosthat meant so much to the pioneer pollsters. Newcomers, on theaverage, had fewer academic credentials and less training thaneither of two generations of more seasoned pollsters; more ofthem worked directly for politicians. The three generationsalso differed in the satisfactions sought from polling and onprofessional membership. Are we encountering a "new breed" ofpollsters? |
