I spent over an hour on this, not being able to answer some of the questions for reasons below, but then could not submit the survey because I didn't answer everything. Problems with the survey, which makes it hard to answer: 1. Built in faulty assumptions (ex: truth = facts). 2. Presents alternative responses that are not all inclusive without providing a space for "other" (ex: some publications do and should take clear political positions (In These Times) and some shouldn't (WAshington Post)). 3. Includes multiple choices within alternatives (ex: government requests (shouldn't be a factor) are not the same as national security concerns (should be a factor).)
You should take away the red asterisks and provide an "other" option where there is none. Otherwise you aren't going to be getting good information from this survey even if it is "casual." btw, You should never put out a survey, especially a lengthy one like this, unless you have test-driven it to see what problems there are with it.
I came on here to say the same thing. I skipped some questions because I had never thought of the question before so didn't have an answer or because I didn't have a preference so none of the choices applied. Only to find....it won't let me submit at all...? Some feedback:
1) When you're listing choices, they should be done in a logical order (e.g., daily/weekly/monthly, etc.) not in a random order.
2) If you're being asked to rank something from 1 to 5, I think the choices should be numbered that way.
3) One of your quesitons is missing the choices. There are just blanks.
4) The list of where you primarily get your news is too long. (It asks you to choose any one.) Wouldn't it be more helpful information to have people rank these sources according to 1 (often), 2 (sometims) or 3 (never)? I don't think I'm alone in getting my primary news from multiple sources.
5) The question "If you do turn to the media to have your views supported..." is an odd one. I didn't pick that response in the previous question, so it's not applicable to me. Yet there is no response I can choose other than "Yes/No/Depends on the topic."
I could write more, but I'll stop here. I appreciate what you're trying to do here, but think the survey needs an edit and some field testing before rolling it out. I'm disappointed my answers won't be included, but I did benefit from thinking about these questions and writing out my answers.
Whoever wrote this, doesn’t understand how to put a survey together. That’s both from a technical perspective in terms of missing prompts and also the wording of questions and prompts.
The media skims over problems that require a deeper understanding. The problems we face today require reading books! The media is about emotion and money. This survey is about what the consumer wants, not what he needs! Do a program about Marx or Engels or Smith or Hayek, or Friedman, and tell me what they thought about capitalism. Our problem isn't about democracy or autocracy; it's about capitalism and inequality. We have a systemic problem. We choose to hear how Trump told another lie rather than what created this monster. We, our economic system and culture, created this monster; we are the monster! The media worships MAMMON. You need to tell us who the hell MAMMON was... and the story of PLUTUS... and the story of the FATES. Democracy or autocracy will just delay the inevitable, one carrying more pain than the other. Capitalism and consumerism have met their FATE, their DEATH. You, the media, need to stop playing like we are not dead and start pondering the resurrection. What can we do better than Rome, or the Mongols, or the UK? We are today, Sisyphus, standing at the foot of that mountain, looking up with that boulder at our chest, cursed. Our suffering has not ended. We are left with the labor of Sisyphus.
The “bothsidesism” a problem for news? * - radio buttons (The small circle or dot used to indicate a selection in an online survey) didn't have "Yes, No, Don't know" answers next to them.
That's showing up for me now after resetting and refreshing — I think that question not displaying was interrupting the subsequent questions and the submit button.
Hey Michael... thanks for all your work behind the scenes at The Ink. I just refreshed and the answer options are up now. Lost my other replies, but I'll take the survey again later.
Is there a deadline for submitting? Was there a way to Save the survey and not lose the answers? No big deal. You'll get all this kind of thing dialed in as The Ink continues to grow its content and community.
At least I had to look up what the little buttons are called and learned something today. ;-)
Lack of bothsidism has been a problem for news covering Trump. It is his POV that is promoted. He is scarier, so news gives him benefit of doubt, and is cruel to everyone else.
I’m upset Anand that I spent well over an hour on your survey and then couldn’t send it as the send button didn’t work? I’m certainly committed to helping you with this but the process was not friendly to this subscriber.
I had some difficulties too. It would help to know what you're really trying to find out. (As a former reference librarian, I am very aware of the ways in which people ask questions that may or may not represent what they really want to know.) I think my main issue was your questions about whether I seek out media that confirms my worldview or whether I want the unvarnished truth. Ahem: my worldview *is* the unvarnished truth. Okay, I'm only half joking here. With media so partisan these days, I'm not sure this is as legitimate a question as it might once have been. Yes, liberals and progressives can mislead, but they're far less likely to do so than right-wingers. So I'm not sure my answers to those questions are of any use to you. Please, if you don't mind, tell us what you're considering and ask us again, because I'm not sure these answers are going to help you that much. BTW, I don't know if I made this clear, but The ink is my absolute favorite source of news and commentary now, as well as group discussion. I am reading Priya's book about the art of gathering, and I can see that you have adhered to her principles very well. This group has clear purpose in everything it does, and as a result is the place to go for community. From the interviews to the posts to the chat to the book club, The Ink is building a cohesive community and I am thrilled. Personally, I wouldn't change a thing but obviously you have something in mind.
I spent over an hour on this, not being able to answer some of the questions for reasons below, but then could not submit the survey because I didn't answer everything. Problems with the survey, which makes it hard to answer: 1. Built in faulty assumptions (ex: truth = facts). 2. Presents alternative responses that are not all inclusive without providing a space for "other" (ex: some publications do and should take clear political positions (In These Times) and some shouldn't (WAshington Post)). 3. Includes multiple choices within alternatives (ex: government requests (shouldn't be a factor) are not the same as national security concerns (should be a factor).)
Very sorry to hear that; I believe I have the offending question fixed at this point.
Agree with what you're saying, those things are not strict parallels; that's meant as a casual measure of opinions rather than a scientific survey.
You should take away the red asterisks and provide an "other" option where there is none. Otherwise you aren't going to be getting good information from this survey even if it is "casual." btw, You should never put out a survey, especially a lengthy one like this, unless you have test-driven it to see what problems there are with it.
There were multiple problematic questions.
I came on here to say the same thing. I skipped some questions because I had never thought of the question before so didn't have an answer or because I didn't have a preference so none of the choices applied. Only to find....it won't let me submit at all...? Some feedback:
1) When you're listing choices, they should be done in a logical order (e.g., daily/weekly/monthly, etc.) not in a random order.
2) If you're being asked to rank something from 1 to 5, I think the choices should be numbered that way.
3) One of your quesitons is missing the choices. There are just blanks.
4) The list of where you primarily get your news is too long. (It asks you to choose any one.) Wouldn't it be more helpful information to have people rank these sources according to 1 (often), 2 (sometims) or 3 (never)? I don't think I'm alone in getting my primary news from multiple sources.
5) The question "If you do turn to the media to have your views supported..." is an odd one. I didn't pick that response in the previous question, so it's not applicable to me. Yet there is no response I can choose other than "Yes/No/Depends on the topic."
I could write more, but I'll stop here. I appreciate what you're trying to do here, but think the survey needs an edit and some field testing before rolling it out. I'm disappointed my answers won't be included, but I did benefit from thinking about these questions and writing out my answers.
Whoever wrote this, doesn’t understand how to put a survey together. That’s both from a technical perspective in terms of missing prompts and also the wording of questions and prompts.
I cannot get it to submit. Any suggestions. I don't want to refresh and have to redo it.
Checking on it
Try it again if you're still in? One of the questions wasn't loading fully but seems to be so on refresh)
I had the same problem after spending a long time on it
Was this just now or earlier today?
A couple of hours ago
The media skims over problems that require a deeper understanding. The problems we face today require reading books! The media is about emotion and money. This survey is about what the consumer wants, not what he needs! Do a program about Marx or Engels or Smith or Hayek, or Friedman, and tell me what they thought about capitalism. Our problem isn't about democracy or autocracy; it's about capitalism and inequality. We have a systemic problem. We choose to hear how Trump told another lie rather than what created this monster. We, our economic system and culture, created this monster; we are the monster! The media worships MAMMON. You need to tell us who the hell MAMMON was... and the story of PLUTUS... and the story of the FATES. Democracy or autocracy will just delay the inevitable, one carrying more pain than the other. Capitalism and consumerism have met their FATE, their DEATH. You, the media, need to stop playing like we are not dead and start pondering the resurrection. What can we do better than Rome, or the Mongols, or the UK? We are today, Sisyphus, standing at the foot of that mountain, looking up with that boulder at our chest, cursed. Our suffering has not ended. We are left with the labor of Sisyphus.
Had an issue filling in the form.
The “bothsidesism” a problem for news? * - radio buttons (The small circle or dot used to indicate a selection in an online survey) didn't have "Yes, No, Don't know" answers next to them.
That's showing up for me now after resetting and refreshing — I think that question not displaying was interrupting the subsequent questions and the submit button.
Hey Michael... thanks for all your work behind the scenes at The Ink. I just refreshed and the answer options are up now. Lost my other replies, but I'll take the survey again later.
Is there a deadline for submitting? Was there a way to Save the survey and not lose the answers? No big deal. You'll get all this kind of thing dialed in as The Ink continues to grow its content and community.
At least I had to look up what the little buttons are called and learned something today. ;-)
Glad to provide the opportunity — it SHOULD work for everyone now.
No deadline, we're planning to leave this up at least all week to give everyone a chance.
Lack of bothsidism has been a problem for news covering Trump. It is his POV that is promoted. He is scarier, so news gives him benefit of doubt, and is cruel to everyone else.
I was going to give your survey a go until I read the two comments showing. I will come back later and see if you’ve changed it up.
The questions were more probing than most surveys. It made me think about what media I consume. It showed me how I have changed.
I’m upset Anand that I spent well over an hour on your survey and then couldn’t send it as the send button didn’t work? I’m certainly committed to helping you with this but the process was not friendly to this subscriber.
I had some difficulties too. It would help to know what you're really trying to find out. (As a former reference librarian, I am very aware of the ways in which people ask questions that may or may not represent what they really want to know.) I think my main issue was your questions about whether I seek out media that confirms my worldview or whether I want the unvarnished truth. Ahem: my worldview *is* the unvarnished truth. Okay, I'm only half joking here. With media so partisan these days, I'm not sure this is as legitimate a question as it might once have been. Yes, liberals and progressives can mislead, but they're far less likely to do so than right-wingers. So I'm not sure my answers to those questions are of any use to you. Please, if you don't mind, tell us what you're considering and ask us again, because I'm not sure these answers are going to help you that much. BTW, I don't know if I made this clear, but The ink is my absolute favorite source of news and commentary now, as well as group discussion. I am reading Priya's book about the art of gathering, and I can see that you have adhered to her principles very well. This group has clear purpose in everything it does, and as a result is the place to go for community. From the interviews to the posts to the chat to the book club, The Ink is building a cohesive community and I am thrilled. Personally, I wouldn't change a thing but obviously you have something in mind.
I spent time too only for it not to submit....hmmm. and I answered all the questions.
I spent lots of time and some answers needed more than one response that you couldn’t leave and then, it would not submit.
Was expecting to see a definition for the red asterisk. Failed to see any.
Usually it means that an answer is required.
That’s what I guessed but just was not sure. Thanks.
I cannot get my survey to submit.
Hopefully you will report out the results of this survey! I know I would find it fascinating…
I cannot submit. Apparently that was not a problem for you.
No I was able to submit. I received a response that my survey was recorded.
I hope someone from Anand’s group is reading comments and can assist!
I will check; seems like something is amiss with the submission button.
Certainly with mine. It is now deleted, and I am not participating in the survey.