Statistics and its Utilization (Abuse) in Gaining Information

Public opinion is formed in couple phases which are linked to each other. However, some specific information or happening, which a given member of society or a given part of population faces, stands every time at the beginning. Constantly increasing opportunities of data gaining, processing and analysing enable a creation of information about various areas of human activities. This information plays a significant role in the process of public-opinion creation. For data analysis, various elements of statistics are used. A thesis deals with the opportunities of utilization of statistics for creation and spreading of information. A theoretical part of the thesis deals with knowledge of public opinion area and statistics. In practical part of the thesis, mostly used methods for intentional or unconscious manipulation with public opinion are presented. The main element of the practical part of the thesis is the formation of a questionnaire survey and the analysis of its data. The cardinal research hypothesis of the thesis is a discovery, if the knowledge of statistic terms affects the ability of respondent to interpret an information message