>i wonder what kind of sample wojtek thinks he's getting on the yahoo boards.
>
>and i admit i also wonder if carroll thinks these yahoo boards are more
>indicative of "public sentiments" or the pulse of popular culture than
>television. <eg> (as they say)
I have no illusion that this is a probability sample. But yahoo boards have at least one advantage over a formal survey - they are anonymous and do not involve personal interaction. They are thus more conducive to people speaking their minds instead of giving socially acceptable answers, which they often do in formal interviews. For that reason, they are good indicators of what's on people's minds, albeit they may not accurately indicate the incidence of the voiced opinions.
wojtek