Thursday, April 19, 2007
Unwilling/Obnoxious Surveyers
I have had a really hard time getting students here at USF to take my surveys that I need for my big story. I never thought everyone would get so annoyed at the fact that they had to fill out a little survey. A lot of people did not take it seriously at all, and even wrote things like "I'm fat" or "Boring" next to the lines where they should have been numbering which majors were easiest/most difficult at USF. What was also interesting was how some people interpretted the instructions of the survey. Some people numbered the majors from 1 to 10, easiest to hardest, as I had intended. Other people gave each major a rating out of ten, like Politics and Physcology were both rated 9, and four of the majors rate 4, and Communications with a 1. Those students sort of scaled each major, so many of the majors had the same numbers next to them which kind of skrewed up my intentions for the results of the survey, but I figured out a way of still using that data. I never realized it would be so difficult to get people to take my survey seriously. So many people were just so annoyed that I had even asked to take up five minutes of their time. And then when they read the survey they responded with things like, "Oh my god I have to acually think?" or "Uuugh this is hard". It was sooooooo annoying. But anyways, I finally got all of my data organized, so thats good. Just in case you were curious, the students i surveyed percieve Communications to be the easiest major in the Arts & Sciences, then Exercise and Sport Science (which I highly disagree with because of all of the science and anatomy courses required, but I think since this is such an unknown major, many people assumed it was simple), the next easiest was said to be Media Studies. The hardest major was said to be Politics, and then closely following was Psychology. I thought the results were very interesting. I have talked to a few students in the Communications department that highly disagree, and really argue that Communications is waaayy harder than people think. On the other hand, students in the Media Studies area say that the major actually is really easy. I actually went through my surveys, and a number of people that listed their major as Media Studies put it as one of the easiest ones. I thought that was interesting. I don't know, overall I've had a fun but difficult time with this assignment. I really thought it would be easier to get the information I wanted than it was.
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2 comments:
yes students can get irritated or uninterested when taking surverys revolving around campus issues, which i feel, is sad because it is of their interest and it does affect them, being that we are ALL students attending this university. well 1st off, i wish you luck on your surveys. 2nd, this also pertains to reporting and journalism...not everyone may be interested in your story or topic and they may not even take it seriously as you mentioned. i guess as reporters, we have to take it with a grain of salt and be persistent with our work and with our stories. good luck with everything meghan.
i find this really interesting too. if anything i would think politics should be listed as one of the easiest. in many ways, it is just like comm and media studies, it just incorporated more history as opposed to written studies. and what about nursing, why wasn't that among the hardest? very curious results.
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