[ad_1]
London- Media experts agree that opinion polls in the Arab world have turned malicious. Despite its importance because it reflects what people think and aspire to, this does not negate the character of bias, especially when it comes to political issues.
This week, the headlines of Arab websites featured conflicting opinion polls on “Arab citizens’ views on peace with Israel.”
Media sites affiliated with the Gulf states have said the majority of Arabs support peace with Israel, based on some opinion polls.
Gulf-owned media reported the results of a recent poll conducted by the US Zogby Foundation, which said most Arab citizens support establishing peace with Israel, given its role in promoting stability.
The poll included a sample of 3,600 people from five Arab countries. These are the Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Palestine, in addition to more than a thousand Israelis.
The Foundation, which is a private company that conducts studies, marketing research and opinion polls with great credibility, asked those who took part in the Peace with Israel poll, and is this desirable ?
A large majority (over eight in 10) of Israelis and Arabs surveyed believe that resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is important for establishing peace, while majorities in all Arab countries hope for peace in the next five years (between 53% and 57% in Jordan and Palestine. Respectively and 76% in the Emirates).
Soon the alert media entered the other side to refute the poll, to confirm that it was “misleading” not in terms of the results but because its results were published before the peace agreement between Israel. , the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. The investigation was conducted between June 24 and July 5.
Observers say this does not show the poll is misleading. On the contrary, it can “legitimize the peace agreement on the basis that it reflects the will of the citizens”.
On Twitter, IDF spokesman Avichai Adrai said: “There is no voice above the voice of reason. A public opinion poll found that most Arab citizens support establishing peace with Israel because of its role in promoting stability. The survey was conducted in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates.
The “Mesbar” website, which defines itself as “an Arab platform for examining the truth and uncovering the lies,” wrote that it had checked the report and the publications disseminated and found them to be “misleading and selective. “.
“Mesbar” continued in his report, which said: “It does not verify the validity of the results included in the Zogby Foundation investigation, but rather deals with misinformation and selectivity in some media coverage of the results. of the investigation.” The “Zogby Foundation” published an opinion poll in July this year, titled “The Annexation Debate: Attitudes in Israel and in Major Arab Countries.
Two weeks ago, the “Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies” based in the Qatari capital, Doha, announced the results of the “Arab Index”, which included 28,000 participants from 13 Arab countries, and announced showed that 88% of Arabs in the countries studied refused to recognize Israel. 100% of Egyptians, 91% of Palestinians, 93% of Jordanians and 65% of Saudis, and this Arab public opinion is compatible and quasi-society that the policies of “Israel” threaten the security and stability of the Arab region. As usual, well-known media celebrated and published the poll.
This opinion poll revealed that the agency that organizes the poll has certain guidelines or is subject to certain institutions with ties to entities in its interest to return the survey results in its favor, which raises many questions. questions about the issue of funding for survey stakeholders. Are impartial and funded by the sale of these surveys. It should be remembered that the funding of some surveys can be directed, and that the results of the survey can therefore only be reliable if they are affiliated with independent administrative and financial bodies.
Between this and that, Israeli opinion polls hold an important place for them and are published by Israeli institutions, although it is difficult to trust the conditions attached to objectivity.
Conflicting opinion polls confirm the existence of two currents in Arab public opinion, the first of which is willing to establish relations with Israel, although it is difficult to determine the magnitude of this current and the extent of its strength, since the number of those involved is not known with precision.
And the social media image, after the announcement of the UAE-Israel normalization agreement, may reflect the state of public opinion in the Arab world, even if it was also inaccurate. Directly after the announcement of the deal by US President Donald Trump, conflicting hashtags emerged, some celebrating the deal and others betraying Its participants, Twitter.
It is not possible to determine with precision the extent of the rejection, or popular support, for peace with Israel, either because of the lack of interest of the Arab authorities in this regard or because of the lack of opinion polls. or serious studies, as well as the bias of some on a certain point of view.
The question of opinion polls is one of the more complex questions, and it is largely one of the news media which arbitrarily determines how people feel about the broader outlook. We can forget that
Those who pay people who take surveys usually influence the realm of ideas and attitudes.
And the voting institutions defend themselves by saying that “it must be recognized that opinion polls reflect the tendencies of citizens at a given time”. To understand what the numbers of the polls say, you need to know the mechanisms and methods of implementation, because the variables are many, because it is enough to change the formula of the question so that the nature of the results can change.
Surveys regularly invite those who answer them to choose between options for which they have already prepared. The results, as experienced players of the survey game admit, depend on the precise wording of the questions and the variety in the choice of the many answers.
The former executive director of the Gallup Institute for Opinion Polls, David Moore, wrote a few years ago in his book “Senior Surveyors” that “slight differences in the wording of the question or in the placement of the questions in the interview can have important consequences, ”noting that The survey results are greatly influenced by the survey itself. On the other hand, “Whatever their quality, the number of people questioned influences perceptions, attitudes and decisions at all levels of society”.
Media critic Herbert Schiller said more than three decades ago in an assessment of the poll: “It is a mechanism to restrict selection.” In his book “Managers of the Mind” published by the National Council for Culture, Arts and Literature in Kuwait in 1986 in the series “World of Knowledge” under the title “Mind manipulators”, Schiller said: “Those who occupy decision-making positions in government and private economic activities are the main supporters of the people who poll. It is the vital needs of these groups that determine – intentionally or unintentionally – the dimensions in which surveys are formulated.
Source link
