WAPOR Asia Kuala Lumpur 2020, great opportunity to understand issues on public opinion

By Aznan Mat Piah

GOMBAK, 8 September 2020: A virtual conference “WAPOR Asia Kuala Lumpur 2020” to be held on 9 and 10 November this year on the broad theme “Public Opinion: Present Reflection and Beyond 2020” will provide opportunities not only for the academics but also professional communities to gain an understanding of issues and values of public opinion.

The main conference will be held on 10 November. However, the conference will be preceded by a workshop on 9 November after the official opening, featuring prominent scholar, Prof. Edith de Leeuw of University of Utrecht who will be talking on multimode and multimethod, assisted by Anen Elevelt, while Prof. Sahari Nordin, an expert on statistics from International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), will be handling assessment on validity and reliability tests using factor analysis and Rasch Measurement.

Organised by the World Association for Public Opinion Research or WAPOR Asia (Malaysia), the conference is open to participation by scholars, academics, media practitioners and professional communities dealing in public opinion. The proposed themes/streams include factors fostering growth of public opinion; media, power and conflict; polling and gauging voter sentiment; media communication and technology; methods of research (survey and content analysis); and public opinion in digital age.

Because of health, travel safety and access to funding concerns, WAPOR Asia has decided to hold the conference in a virtual format. The goal is to provide the public opinion community with a rich, valuable and engaging experience. “Our virtual conference plans to have all aspects of our in person event translated to a user friendly, online format”, says a promo poster on the event issued today giving the highlights of the conference.

The conference will see sharing sessions on insightful issues by pioneers in Asian public opinion like Yashwant Deshmukh from CVOTER, India, Dr. Mahar Mangahas from Social Weather Stations, the Philippines, and Dr. Robert Chung from Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute.

Among others, the conference is organised with the objectives to assist the academics and professional communities in understanding the issues and values of public opinion and associated institutions, to explore the role of the traditional and new media in influencing public opinion, and to provide a platform for key professional communities and observers to present research papers on their recent studies on election in Asia (such as Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Pakistan).

The conference is also intended to discuss factors that inhibit the growth of public opinion in Asia, and to facilitate dialogues between academics and industry leaders.

For more information, please visit http://www.waporasia2020.com ***

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