ABSTRACT
The traditional independent reporting process involved a team effort among journalists from all of the news organizations as well as two independent survey research experts not associated with the newsrooms. Depending on the poll and the subject, different combinations of news organizations and experts were used. With increased power from more sophisticated tools, such as mainframe computers and telephone systems, surveys and polls became the original and most visible form of computer-assisted reporting. Although other computer-assisted reporting approaches require hardware and software, many do not require much labor. Polling, however, requires the computer tools. It is also labor intensive during the interviewing stages. Some survey research firms are using a variation of computer-assisted telephone interviewing with in-person interviewing. Because of the increased power and utility of portable computers such as notebook PCs, these have been introduced into survey research in-person field interviewing.
