[ press Release ]
CBS NEWS CAPTURES VIEWERS' IMMEDIATE REACTION TO STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS
Knowledge Networks scientifically measures viewers' response to President Obama's speech
Menlo Park, CA; February 1, 2010: Minutes after President Obama's speech, 522 TV viewers—all members of KnowledgePanel®—participated in a CBS News/Knowledge Networks InstantPoll. An estimated 83% of the viewers approved of President Obama's proposals, and 70% said that he has the same priorities for the country as they have—up from 57% before the speech.
CBS News has featured the survey results, based on a scientific sample of Americans from KnowledgePanel®, in its Web coverage.
See stories at these links:
Political Hotsheet blog
State of the Union Coverage
In addition, a majority of viewers indicated that President Obama has a clear plan for creating jobs (59%) and that the President's economic plans will reduce the budget deficit in the long run (56%). On the key issue of health care, an estimated 67% of the viewers approve of his plan for dealing with health care reform.
Survey Sample
A representative sample of 522 viewers of the State of the Union Address participated in the survey immediately following the speech on January 27, 2010. The sampling margin of error is +/- 4 percentage points for the entire sample of respondents.
Poll Methodology
To obtain a valid assessment of the impact of the address on viewers' opinions and attitudes, a random sample of viewers from the nationally representative online research panel, KnowledgePanel, were asked questions both before and then immediately after the President's speech. Survey results comparing both before-speech and after-speech opinions were delivered to CBS News less than 15 minutes after the conclusion of the speech.
KnowledgePanel® has provided CBS News with viewer measurement for several previous State of the Union speeches. Knowledge Networks – a consumer information and public policy survey company – also delivered moment-by-moment tracking of reactions to the 2000, 2004 and 2008 presidential debates; in 2004, CBS News displayed positive/negative reaction levels on its Web site as the debate occurred. Knowledge Networks research has also played a prominent role in CBS News post-speech and post-debate coverage.
Knowledge Networks specializes in solving complex, high-impact problems, providing extraordinary quality and service to leaders in government, academia, and business. We work closely with clients to create sound public policies, accurate social science research, healthy consumer-brand connections, and effective marketing and advertising. We have established respected practices in government & academic studies, media, marketing, and advertising. KN excels in study design, analytics, and custom panel creation; we deliver affordable, statistically valid online research through KnowledgePanel® – the only available probability selected, nationally representative Internet panel.
