--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "shempmcgurk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, new.morning <no_reply@> > wrote: > > > > > > > > shempmcgurk wrote: > > > >In light of the fact that only 19 of 100 contacted had seen the > > > >movie, do you think it was fair of the AP to lead with: "The > > > >nation's top climate scientists are giving 'An Inconvenient > Truth,' > > > >Al Gore's documentary on global warming, five stars for > accuracy." ? > > > > I am not sure I yet understand what occurred. > > > > There are clearly more than 100 climate scientists in the US / > world. > > I have heard the figure 10,000 used. Though perhaps not explicitly > > stated in the article, its strongly implied that these 100 > scientists > > contacted were a sample of the 10,000 (or so) qualified scientists. > > Probably a reasonable sample size. Hopefully the list was drawn in > a > > random fashion. At a minumum, I presume no one has pointed to any > > extreme biases in the sample. > > > > That 19 of the 100 in the sample responded is pretty typical. Most > > research, marketing and political samples have high non-respondent > > rates. Its an issue, but not an unsurmountable problem. > Particllary if > > the sample size was targeted at being larger than necessary, to > > account for non-respondents. > > The movie's only been out a few weeks. > > I wonder whether the 19 who did see it were predisposed to Gore's > point of view. To give an extreme example: Star War fans are more > likely to be the first to go see a new installment of the franchise.
That's an extreme example and not parallel in many ways. If you were a climate scientist who did not agree with the general consensus on global warming, and were concerned about how well the public was being informed, you would of course want to see the movie or read the book so you could debunk it. Unless, of course, you didn't want to have your own viewpoint threatened. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Something is new at Yahoo! Groups. Check out the enhanced email design. http://us.click.yahoo.com/SISQkA/gOaOAA/yQLSAA/UlWolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
