i. Were you contacted by parties through an online social network, such as Facebook? [Wurden Sie über ein soziales Netzwerk im Internet, wie z. B. Facebook, von Parteien kontaktiert?]

Nein

"Have you been contacted by parties via an online social network, such as Facebook?" - Does "being contacted" also cover seeing posts from parties that have been shared by other users or have appeared as advertisements?
For item i), persons were asked what they understood by "being contacted via a social network." In addition to the social medium Facebook, which served as an example for item i), five test persons named other ways of being contacted. Among them were two persons each who addressed Instagram or Twitter. Subject 01 also referenced email contacts in her response.

"Being contacted" for all ten test persons meant a private message addressed directly to them:

• "That's when I first thought of being contacted by email from the parties or being contacted directly on Facebook." (TP 01)
• "Being contacted via Facebook or Instagram, so, sort of [getting] a message sent to me." (TP 02)
• "If someone would write to me directly, the SPD or the CDU, whether I would like to vote for a candidate or why not." (TP 08)

Overall, most of the test persons thought of direct contacts and not of other ways of contacting them when answering item i). Depending on the intent of the question developers, item i) might need to be reworded to capture shared posts or advertisements.

Since most of the tested questions contain the term "social media," we recommend this term also for item i), instead of using "social networks." Since the phrase "be contacted" made most test persons think of direct messaging, item i) can capture other contact options with a rewording if desired:

"Have you seen posts from or received direct messages from parties via an online social network, such as Facebook?"

false