Televoting, telephone voting or phone voting is a method of decision making and

opinion poll An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll (although strictly a poll is an actual election) is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinion ...

ing conducted by telephone. Televoting can also extend to voting by

SMS Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...

text message via a mobile cell phone.

Broadcast contest televoting

Televoting involves broadcasters providing an audience with different telephone numbers associated with contestants participating; the outcome is decided by the number of calls to each line. Televotes are most commonly used to determine weekly results in reality competitions, such as '' Big Brother'', '' Dancing with the Stars / Strictly Come Dancing'', ''

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'', and ''

The X Factor ''The X Factor'' is a television music competition franchise created by British producer Simon Cowell and his company Syco Entertainment. It originated in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for '' Pop Idol'' (2001–2003 ...

'' franchises. In

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, the Eurovision Song Contest began to phase in public televoting to determine its winner, with a mass rollout beginning in

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. Initially, televotes completely replaced the previous system, in which entries were scored by regional juries. These changes led to the increased prominence of " bloc voting"—in which a country's voting pattern would commonly favour neighbouring nations (such as

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...

n, Baltic, Balkan, and CIS countries), and countries with similar cultures ( UK and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

). From 2009 to 2015, most countries used a 50/50 split between a jury and televoting results. Since

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, most countries still use a televoting process and a jury to determine the results, the votes are no longer combined and instead treated separately.

Deliberative democracy televoting

A televote is initiated by random sampling of a population by means of random digit dialling. Those contacted are requested to volunteer to receive written background briefing materials regarding a particular issue, that have been prepared by a panel of representatives of different stakeholder groups affected by that issue, and incorporating various views or perspectives. Volunteers are requested to discuss the issue amongst their families and friends until they have reached a decision. At the conclusion of this period they are polled again by telephone in order to determine their views.

Advantages of televoting

Televoting is a more cost-effective method of democratic deliberation than many alternatives such as

deliberative polling A deliberative opinion poll, sometimes called a deliberative poll, is a form of opinion poll that incorporates the principles of deliberative democracy. Professor James S. Fishkin of Stanford University first described the concept in 1988. The typi ...

, as it does not require the participants to meet in person. Common to other deliberative democratic techniques, it also tends to produce more reasoned decisions than "raw" opinion polling, because participants are exposed to various perspectives other than their own in the briefing materials that they receive.

Disadvantages of televoting

Televoting may be less effective than other methods of democratic deliberation in which a trained moderator or facilitator is available in person to ensure that groups seriously deliberate on the issue before them.

References

* Carson, L: "Innovative consultation processes and the changing role of activism", ''Third Sector Review'', 7(1):7, 2001. * Slaton, C D. (1992), ''Televote: Expanding Citizen Participation in the Quantum Age'', Oxford: Praeger.

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