Egyptian youth awareness of public opinion polls

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Journalism Department - Faculty of Mass Communication - Cairo University.

Abstract

Since 1824, public opinion measurements have been used to take indications of public opinion trends. Egypt has known public opinion measurements for several decades; firstly, it was limited to a number of research centers, the most prominent of which are: the National Center for Social and Criminal Research, Al-Ahram Center for Strategic Studies, and the Center for Strategic Studies. Public opinion at the Faculty of Mass Communication, Cairo University, and the Opinion Polls Center affiliated with the Information and Decision Support Center and Baseera Center, and these measurements soon spread through various media outlets. Rrecently, the information and communication technology revolution has allowed the emergence of its electronic applications, to place them within the reach of all citizens who use the Internet, in a way that weakens the dominance of official or specialized research authorities in the manufacture of these polls and holds the Egyptian citizen the responsibility of choosing.    
There is no doubt that Egypt's revolutionary experience with Western democratic tools, including public opinion measurements, will have a major impact on the country's political culture, which calls for a permanent and continuous evaluation of the development of Egyptians ’awareness of these tools and their actual importance in their societies. Will Egyptian public perception of these surveys change? Has it succeeded in expressing the true opinion trends in the country? And transfer it to political decision-makers, or did it continue in light of the old negative Egyptian experience related to political polls? Which looks at it with suspicion and caution, as a tool in the hands of the authority in order to direct and control public opinion. Hence, the study examines the extent of Egyptian youth awareness of the cognitive matters related to conducting public opinion surveys and polls and publishing them in the media and the extent of their ability to think critically and distinguish good from bad Light assumptions of media knowledge theory.

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