Categorization of Free/Unaided Recall of Information Source
in Q2 of Survey:
Voters' Sources of Information for 2009 City Council election (Palo Alto CA)

Purpose

The below table is intended to provide a basis for comparing the free/unaided recall responses to Question 2 with the ratings for a list of information sources in Questions 3 through 9. This table should be regarded as only a rough appropriation: It involved significant guessing to categorize vague and ambiguous responses. It is also vulnerable to a degree of clerical error.

Even though people were not asked to order their choices, such an order is likely in many of the responses and is recorded in the table.

Unanticipated Sources

There were three information sources not in Q3-Q9 that were mentioned by enough respondents to be noted here.

  1. A booklet Palo Alto at a Critical Crossroad by outgoing Council member Jack Morton that was mailed to voters city-wide (delivered approximately October 17). Although it touched on important issues, it did not become part of the general discussion because it was widely judged to be irredeemably flawed: It had substantial errors in facts about the issues themselves and the history, and its mean-spiritedness and hypocrisy were likely to create significant diversions from a discussion of the issues.
    However, these mentions suggest a significant lost opportunity—that there was an appetite for a more substantive discussion than was provided during the campaign.
  2. Candidate statements on San Francisquito Creek flooding issues published in the Crescent Park Neighborhood Association newsletter (PDF or MS-Word). The 13 mentions represent 28% of 46 Crescent Park respondents.
  3. Essays by Doug Moran (also the author of this document). Most of the mentions seem to refer to the second of these, but some mentions are ambiguous. Although all these essays were announced on some of the neighborhood email lists, all the mentions come from Barron Park residents (where Moran is well-known as a neighborhood leader). These 12 mentions represent 18% of the 68 Barron Park respondents.

Optional: Classification details

  1. Some of the responses were not information sources, for example experience and gender, and were ignored. But these were surprisingly few.
  2. Responses were classified as specifically as possible. For example, a mention of the PAN Forum would be counted only in that category and not also used to increment the count for Forums in general.
  3. Responses that mentioned multiple categories increased the count for each of them. For example, a response of PAN and LVW Forums was treated as a mention of each—it was not treated as if it was a mention of forums in general. Thus, adding together the subcategories will sometimes produce a higher total than actually occurred, but these cases were few enough that they don't make a significant difference.
  4. Surrounding information was used to make some mentions more specific. For example, a response of Newspapers would be interpreted as news coverage when that respondent gave a low rating to newspaper endorsements. However, if the other responses involved endorsements, Newspapers was counted there, and not in news coverage.
  5. Negative mentions were listed in the right-most column, but not included in the total. For example, respondents who said they voted against candidates endorsed by the unions.

Variants of the phrase Personal knowledge were common responses. In some cases, it appeared to mean things learned by following the news and personality over the years; in others, it appeared to mean information from personal contact, family, friends, neighbors, … In most cases, it was too vague to warrant a guess.

Campaign 2009 Information Sources Free/Unaided Recall - Categorization of 339 responses
Question 1 2 3 4 5 Total Negative
3. Endorsements 10 12 7 3 32 2
3a. Newspapers 6 7 7 2 2 24
- Daily News 1 5 2 8
- Daily Post 3 4 2 9
- PA Weekly 21 14 9 5 49
3b. Officials 1 1 2 1 5
3c. Organizations 3 3 2 2 1 9 2
3d. Community 1 1 2 1
4. Recommendations
4a. Lawn signs 2 1 1 1 1 6 1
4b. Friends&Family 24 18 31 16 8 96
4c. 3rd Party 1 1
4d. Online groups 1 1
5. Ads 2 1 1 4
5a. in newspapers 1
5b. news websites /video interviews 4 5 1 1 11
5c. Cable TV 1 1 1 1 4
5de. Doorstep+Mail 18 24 25 14 4 85 6
5g. candidate web 6 11 7 2 26
6. Forums 23 15 9 4 51
- PAN 21 3 1 2 27
- LWV 13 5 1 19
7. Pubs, comp
7a. Questionnaires 1 4 3 8
- PAN 20 16 10 4 1 51
- Crescent Park (in their newsletter) 4 5 2 1 1 13
7b. SCC Guide 25 21 12 3 2 63
7c. LWV Guide/Questionnaire 9 10 3 1 1 26
7d. SmartVoter website 4 3 3 1 11
7x. Morton booklet 6 4 3 2 2 17
7y. Moran essays 3 8 1 12  
8. Personal 24 14 8 2 3 48
8a. Coffees&... 17 16 12 5 4 54
8b. Door-to-door 1 1 1 3
8d. Supporters
9. Newspapers: Articles and Interviews 30 26 20 6 2 84
9a. Daily News/SJMN 2 7 7 2 18
9b. Daily Post 1 2 1 4
9c. PA Weekly 45 26 15 6 92