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Project Title:Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) Module 5 (English Version)
  2. General Information: *Note: The item was tested in German. This is an English translation of the original German wording. The translation does not correspond exactly to the wording in the English CSES source questionnaire.*
  3. Question Text: And how closely do you follow politics on TV, radio, newspapers, or the Internet?
    [Und wie aufmerksam verfolgen Sie Politik im Fernsehen, im Radio, in den Zeitungen oder im Internet?]
  4. Instruction: INT.: Read answer categories aloud. [INT.: Antwortkategorien vorlesen.]
  6. Answer Categories Very closely [Sehr aufmerksam]

    Fairly closely [Eher aufmerksam]

    Not very closely [Wenig aufmerksam]

    Not at all [Gar nicht aufmerksam]

    Refused [Verweigert]

    Don't Know [Weiß nicht]

    1. Recommendations: No changes recommended.
  2. Cognitive Techniques:Information image/link to cognitive pretesting General Probing, Specific Probing.
  3. Findings for Question: The majority of respondents claims to follow politics “very closely” (n=5) or “fairly closely” (n=8). Two respondents follow politics “not very closely” (ID 04, 07) and one respondent “not at all” (ID 01).

    The frequency distribution of question 2 is identical to the frequency distribution of question 1. Only two respondents respond differently to the two questions (ID 02: question 1 = not very interested, question 2 = fairly closely; ID 07: question 1 = fairly interested, question 2= not very closely). Respondent 02, who follows politics “fairly closely”, tries to watch the news regularly, however does not actively seek out information on political matters in the media: “I try to keep up with the news. But I don’t explicitly and actively search for information on politics." Respondent 07 explains his answer as follows: “In the morning I browse some websites such as zeit.de or spiegel.de and quickly skim the articles that interest me. But I don’t really get deeper into the matter“.

    The answers of the remaining 14 respondents to the general probe (“Could you further illustrate your answer?”) indicate that the respondents understand and answer the question in the intended way. Overall, these answer patterns emerge:
    • Very closely: Respondents selecting this answer category have a broad interest in political matters and strive to actively inform and further educate themselves via different types of media (newspapers, political magazines, talk shows on TV, Internet, and news on the radio).
    • Fairly closely: The respondents are interested in some specific political issues and seek out information both actively and consciously. The extent to which they engage in political issues, however, depends on the topic.
    • Not very closely: The respondents catch up on contemporary political events sporadically, but do not show a special interest in certain topics. They follow politics in the media in a rather passive way, such as listening to the news on the radio when they come on, but not intentionally turning on the radio for this exact purpose.
    • Not at all: The respondent is not interested in politics in the slightest and finds political matters to be too complex. Therefore, the respondent does not follow politics at all through any medium.
    Lastly, the respondents were asked to state the channels of media they mainly use for political information. No respondent named a different channel than the ones mentioned in the question.
  2. Question Topic: Politics/ Attitudes, appraisals, & ideologies
  3. Construct: Media usage for political information