? A reporter for the local news station wants to know how the citizens of the area feel about the current gas prices. The reporter decides to gather this information by conducting a survey at the local golf course. Part A Determine if the chosen sample

The rest of the question: A reporter for the local news station wants to know how the citizens of the area feel about the current gas prices. The reporter decides to gather this information by conducting a survey at the local golf course.

Part A

Determine if the chosen sample is random or not random for the population and give and explanation why.

Part B

Come up with two different ways a random sample could be collected for this population.

Help me please i need help asap

1 Answer
Feb 28, 2018

The sample is not random. A better way would be to call a random representative sample of the citizens in the local area.

Explanation:

Part A - The sample is not random, because the people that the reporter would find at the golf course would not be representative of the overall citizenry in this area. They would most likely be wealthier (as golf is an expensive pastime/sport). They may be older than the average citizen. They may be biased toward a certain ethnic or racial group (minorities tend to not play golf as much). And so on... there could be other biases in this sample.

Part B - Instead, the reporter should gather census information of the local population and stratify by basic demographic factors such as income, race, gender, etc., and then pick a random sample among each category to call up and survey.

Another approach might be to actually go to gas stations and ask customers their views when they arrive. The reporter should deliberately pick gas stations in different neighborhoods so as to get a mix of races, income brackets, etc.