The article examines public opinion polls from a cultural studies perspective. Polls are discussed as a cultural form, a system of representation that attempts to signify the public. The article explores the differences between the products of polling agencies and the interpretation of polls in the mainstream media. It is argued that for all its attempts at closure, the opinion poll discourse is a fairly ‘open’ text, signifying a far wider range of political ideas than is found in mainstream political discourse. Once these representations of the public are re-presented in mainstream media, the discourse narrows: responses that might be articulated within a progressive political framework are generally ignored or repressed. The article examines this form of closure and concludes by proposing that a pro-corporate, center-right hegemony in the field of public opinion is a narrow, strategic project rather than a broad ideological victory.
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