Estrategias metodológicas en el diseño de encuestas de opinión: análisis desde el caso de la revista Semana (1988-2017)

The opinion poll is an information tool that has become popular in journalism. This instrument has been used as a strategy to monitor political power and guide public opinion. The aim of the article is to identify the methodological strategies that have been used to design opinion polls. The corpus of analysis took as a case study the magazine Semana in Colombia, as it is the pioneer in carrying out surveys and has given the most continuity to this exercise. The data systematization technique was carried out with a dictionary of categories, based on the technical data sheets presented in the surveys. The results show that in the period 1988-2017 the use of opinion surveys has increased steadily, with a canonical scheme and few changes in the types of surveys, questions and topics addressed. The discussion suggests how surveys contribute to maintaining regimes of visibility and fixation of social imaginaries, omitting transformations in journalistic practice, political strategies and social demands. In the conclusions, a prospective agenda is suggested in which limits and risks are identified in the proliferation of surveys and the interests involved in the media sphere.