AUTNES Content Analysis of Party Press Releases (OTS) 2006

The AUTNES coding of party press releases covers all press releases that were issued by parties gaining at least two percent of the votes in the 2006 national election. The coding procedure applies the AUTNES relational approach of recording subjects, predicates, and objects to press releases. The subject is the person or party that features as the sender of the message in the title of the press release. There are two types of objects: issues and object actors. Issues are recorded by coders selecting from the AUTNES issue coding scheme the one issue that fits the content of the press release’s title best. The issue predicate numerically records whether the subject’s position towards the issue is one of support, rejection, or conveys a neutral/ambivalent stance. This procedure (coding of predicate and issue) is repeated for the subtitle of the press release. Up to three object actors are recorded from the information in the title of the press release, each with their name (if an individual is present) and organizational affiliation, as well as the evaluation by the subject actor (positive, negative or neutral). In addition to the basic subject–predicate–object structure we code four more variables: character traits for all object actors, party records for all subject and object actors, justifications for issue statements, and the incident that triggered the press release.

Topics: party authoring the press release; sender (the three-letter APA channel through which the press release was sent); keywords of the press release; title; subtitle; wording; name of first and second subject actor; organizational affiliation of these subject actors; reference to subject actor’s record; issue of title and subtitle; issue predicate of title and subtitle (position towards the coded issue of title and subtitle); reference of title and subtitle to policy at the EU level; justification of issue; upt to three object actors: name and organizational affiliation; object actor predicates (the relation between the subject and each object actor as support, criticism/rejection, or neutral); reference to object actor’s record; reference to object actor’s attributes; trigger variables: arena in which the press release was triggered; name and organizational affiliation of the individual who triggered the press release; bipartisan press release (press release was issued in by politicians from two different parties).

Additionally coded was: pre selection-ID; ID of individual press releases; coder-ID.

AUTNES政党新闻稿编码涵盖了2006年全国选举中得票率不低于2%的政党所发布的所有新闻稿。编码流程采用AUTNES的关系型方法，对新闻稿记录主语、谓语和宾语。主语是新闻稿标题中作为信息发送方出现的个人或政党。宾语分为两类：议题和客体行动者（object actors）。议题由编码员从AUTNES议题编码方案中选择最贴合新闻稿标题内容的一项进行记录；议题谓语则以数值形式记录主语对该议题的立场——支持、反对，或持中立/矛盾态度。这一流程（谓语与议题编码）同样适用于新闻稿的副标题。从新闻稿标题信息中最多可记录三个客体行动者（object actors），每个行动者需包含其姓名（若为个人）、组织隶属关系，以及主语行动者（subject actor）对其的评价（正面、负面或中立）。除基本的主-谓-宾结构外，还编码了另外四个变量：所有客体行动者（object actors）的性格特征、所有主语与客体行动者（object actors）的政党记录、议题陈述的理由，以及触发新闻稿发布的事件。

主题变量包括：新闻稿的撰写政党；发送方（即发布新闻稿的三字母APA渠道）；新闻稿关键词；标题；副标题；措辞；第一及第二主语行动者（subject actor）姓名；这些主语行动者（subject actor）的组织隶属关系；主语行动者（subject actor）记录的参考；标题与副标题的议题；标题与副标题的议题谓语（对标题及副标题编码议题的立场）；欧盟层面政策的参考；议题理由；最多三个客体行动者（object actors）（含姓名及组织隶属关系）；客体行动者谓语（object actor predicate）（主语与各客体行动者间的关系：支持、批评/反对或中立）；客体行动者（object actors）记录的参考；客体行动者（object actors）属性的参考；触发变量（含新闻稿触发的场景、触发新闻稿的个人姓名及组织隶属关系）；跨党派新闻稿（由两个不同政党的政治家联合发布的新闻稿）。

此外还编码了以下内容：预选ID；单篇新闻稿ID；编码员ID。