Article Analysis 5

Charlie Sheen's image goes up among many fans: poll

The before mentioned link is to the poll that will be used for my fifth and final article analysis.  Is it whole heartedly scientific? Probably not.  But is there good data and criticism for the poll?  You betcha.  I decided to mainly include this poll because it was the most thorough poll I was able to find in regards to my final project for Tech 621:Charlie Sheen.

The poll was conducted early February 2011, right when the whole Charlie Sheen bandwagon wheels were just starting to turn and a little bit before said wheels became coming off.  It was published in The Hollywood Reporter magazine to show that people were behind Sheen based on their results.

METHODOLOGY
The method that they used was to survey 700 people aged 13-59 who described themselves as "Avid fans" of Two and a Half Men.  In that statement lies at least two problems. One how did they conduct the survey?  Was it by phone, email, website, outside of the local Wal-Mart? That question is never answered.  For instance, if they surveyed people outside of a mall, then that is merely a convenience sample and in no way could be representative  of how people across the nation felt about Sheen at that time.  The other problem is how did they describe someone being an "avid fan"?  Were they simply able to say there were a fan if they mentioned they liked the show, did they have to admit to watching a certain amount of hours of the show, was there a test involved regarding the background of the show only people familiar with Two and a Half Men would know? The poll does make mention of men and women but doesn't give data out on how many of each gender participated or an age group graph to show differences. These may seem like trivial questions, but if you're going to put information out there, then you need to be more clarified on how you collected your data especially when dealing with human subjects.

Another quick note is that this poll result was based just on fans view, not those who may have indifferent views of the show/Sheen, or negative views which is a whole different animal.

RESULTS:
From their results such statements were made as 28% of men and 42% of women thought Sheen should be removed from the show
56% believed that a future episode should address Sheen's personal issues (again this is when the continuing production of the show was still a realistic possibility)
96% wanted Sheen to return to the show (wait...isn't this kind of in contrast with the first statement?)
22% actually have a more favorable view of Sheen due to his current drug and personal issues
50% believe he should take time off to get better for the show while 34% believed he should work through his personal issues (apparently the other 16% didn't care)
and the best stat for me
59% believe Sheen isn't playing a character on the show, but actually just playing himself.

There were a few other scattered stats that were insignificant for my research, but I felt that the previous statements were ones to take a look at.

In hindsight, I do believe that the intentions of the data are somewhat good.  During this timeframe of Sheen's downfall people still viewed him in a positive light and it seemed genuinely wanted Sheen to get better not only for him, but also for the show itself.  It seemed that when people were dealing with Sheen in such a small quantity before his "Winning" ways, he maintained a favorable view with his key demographics, those who enjoyed his show.  It would have helped if there was also a poll showing the views of those who had either an indifferent view/negative view of Sheen during this timeframe to concur that Sheen was still held in a favorable view overall.  Unfortunately, no such poll was able to be found.  Fast forward two months from this poll and it seems that the public has flipped on Sheen as even as recently as last night, people could not find the exit signs fast enough for his nationwide tour.  The downfall of Sheen has been a fast and violent torpedo downward.  Sorry Charlie, maybe defeat is an option.