PARADOX: Polls VS Campaign Corporate Money

[quantass]

I'm trying to understand how this works.

Throughout the reign of an administration we get polls for this and that. The polling suggest the country ignores the MSM bull and have a liberal sensibility on how to fix the country; less war, proper taxation of the rich, better healthcare and education, regulation. Come election time corporations throw stacks of money at politicians who then run ads and such and once these people go in to vote they apparently vote the way corporations wanted them to. It's as if come election time people can't help themselves but drink up the MSM bull and corporate ads.

On one hand when polled people seem to be aware of the nonsense being pushed by Fox and MSM and for the most part run counter to what they are serving up as if people are getting their news from some other more trusted source. Yet on the other hand after billions $$ have been spent on ads these same people vote WITH what MSM / corporations want. Corporate money wouldnt be flooding in to politicians if this strategy wasnt affective.

Is the polling by the small sample an inaccurate reflection of the entire country (apparently a much larger uninformed block who listen to MSM come out and vote against the polling results) OR is the election system rigged (but if that is the case why would corporations waste money on a guaranteed outcome) ?

[surrealAmerican]

1. As it happens, and this is something we should be alarmed about, ...

... a majority of people in this country are not getting their information from either the MSM or "some other more trusted source". They are not getting information at all except for advertising when elections are impending. This is why the advertising is so very effective. These people are not tuned in to any non-coercive information on which they could base their decisions.

[quantass]

2. I see

I see. To me these uninformed individuals have the greatest influence on election results and so am i correct in assuming the "polls" which are meant to reflect the country's opinion (my understanding anyway) is bullsh*t?

[surrealAmerican]

3. Not exactly...

It's just that the opinions that people are giving between election cycles are based on very little actual information, and such opinions are very easily swayed by advertising.

There's very little point in conducting polls, given the circumstances, but, in some cases, they can reveal a little something about how some segment of the population might vote, or which "issues" they might be thinking about.

[loyalsister]

4. Polls are not representative

Too many factors compromise the results. The electoral maps indicate that various opinions are locally homogenized. Polls rarely sample with that in mind. Aside from that, a well designed random poll of 1200 is miniscule. Particularly considering that participants tend to volunteer to answer questions they are invested in. Many many more people vote than care enough to take an interest specific issues.