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American Public Media's Select a Candidate survey attracts national attention with free HTML widget
Part of American Public Media's ENGAGE 08 interactive election tools, new quiz helps voters align their views with candidates' positions
January 10, 2008
With the approach of Super Duper Tuesday on February 5, when 20 states nationwide hold primary elections for the 2008 Presidential race, American Public Media's Select a Candidate survey is available to help voters sort through the morass and boil candidates down to plain-spoken issues.
Media outlets nationwide now have the opportunity to share the Presidential Select a Candidate survey with their constituencies by using a free "widget," HTML code that automatically plugs in the survey on their Web sites. As the campaign season advances—as well as candidates' positions—the survey is updated regularly. Since its launch on October 18, 2007, the syndicated Select a Candidate has received more than half a million page views.
"In today's new media world, we are no longer confined to radio or text on the Web," says Mike Reszler, managing editor for Minnesota Public Radio's online news. "We view this as a chance to interact with our listeners and a new way to expand our journalistic reach."
With Select a Candidate, by answering a series of questions about major issues, voters can quickly learn which candidates are most closely aligned with their views. They'll learn more about each candidate, get candidates' positions on many issues and find out how their results compare with those of others who take the survey.
"I saw some quizzes in the past where you could find out if you were a conservative or a liberal," says Minnesota Public Radio's Bob Collins, who developed the concept of candidate quizzes that place issues first. Stripping out the politics, Select a Candidate is unique in that answers are weighted according to the level of importance you might place on a particular issue.
In developing the concept, Collins originally thought, "what if we got people to take this quiz and it ended up with them being introduced to the candidates and the last screen linked to those pages?" The idea was to create a sight that was entertaining enough to absorb the information. The results were "diabolical."
Finding out which issues matter to voters is important to informing MPR's newsroom. "We can use Select a Candidate as a direct pipeline of listeners' contributions to development of coverage," says Reszler.
Collins first developed Select a Candidate in 2002 for Minnesota's U.S. Senate and gubernatorial races and further developed the quiz for several Congressional candidates in subsequent election years. During the 2006 gubernatorial campaign, results showed that survey takers' values were overwhelmingly in alignment with the independent candidate, Peter Hutchinson, who was placing a distant third in the polls. The "widget" has been picked up by media outlets nationwide.
To take the Select a Candidate survey, visit www.mpr.org and click on the Shortcuts menu. For free HTML code to put the Select a Candidate widget on your Web site, visit www.selectacandidate.org.
Minnesota Public Radio® operates a 37-station radio network serving virtually all of Minnesota and parts of surrounding states and produces programming for radio, Internet and face-to-face audiences. Programs produced by Minnesota Public Radio, operating as American Public Media,™ reach 14.6 million listeners nationwide each week. Of those, more than 800,000 listen regionally, in Minnesota and surrounding states. A complete list of stations, programs and additional services can be obtained at www.mpr.org and www.americanpublicmedia.org.
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Source: Data are copyright Arbitron, Inc., Nationwide and PSA data. Arbitron data are estimates only. Spring 2006/Fall 2006 average
Press Contacts:
Jennifer Haugh
Minnesota Public Radio
651-290-1369
jhaugh@mpr.org
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