Impact on opinion polls by political betting and fact checking
17 October 2017
The Committee on Political Polling and Digital Media takes evidence from bookmakers and fact checking websites as it focuses on the impact of opinion polls on political betting and voters, as well as the prospects for social media analysis to provide an alternative to traditional polling.
- Parliament TV: Political Polling and Digital Media
- Select Committee on Political Polling and Digital Media
Witnesses
Tuesday 17th October in Committee Room 2, Palace of Westminster
At 10.45am
- Will Moy, Director, Full Fact
- Professor Helen Margetts, Director, Oxford Internet Institute
At 11.45am
- Mike Smithson, Founder and Editor, Politicalbetting.com
- Matthew Shaddick, Head of Political Betting, Ladbrokes
Areas of discussion
In the first session the Committee looks at the role of fact checking organisations during election campaigns. The focus of the session is on the role of social media in elections and the relationship between misleading information and polling data and whether media misreporting of polls is more significant than errors in polling methods themselves.
The second session has witnesses talking about the relationship between political betting and opinion polls, why betting markets and polls sometimes diverge in what they suggest about upcoming elections and whether the reporting of opinion polls influences voter behaviour.
Further information
Image: iStockphoto