Reporting Public Opinion in Singapore

Abstract

The purpose of this article is twofold: to examine the form and content of public opinion reporting in the Singaporean news media and to determine their social implications for public policy decision making. The article analyzes coverage of public opinion polls in the two most important newspapers in Singapore over a three-year span. The data show that public opinion surveys in Singapore are fraught with theoretical and methodological problems and that their reporting in the news media leaves much to be desired. The implication is that manufacturing consent in the news, forced consensus in opinion formation, and uncontested policy debates are likely to breed government complacency.