Topic-specific Information Behaviour on the COVID-19 Pandemic (November 2020)

For the study ´Topic-specific Information Behaviour on the COVID-19 Pandemic´, the market and opinion research institute INFO GmbH surveyed a total of 2,012 persons of the German-speaking resident population aged 16 and over from 6 to 25 November 2020 on behalf of the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government. The subject of the survey were attitudes of the population to the topic of the coronavirus pandemic, their information behaviour and handling of the topic as well as the reporting on the topic of the coronavirus pandemic.<br>1. General questions: interest in politics; self-assessment of being politically informed; agreement with statements on disenchantment with politics (e.g. satisfied with politics in Germany all in all, parties only want the voters´ votes, they are not interested in their views, etc.); frequency of media use on political topics; statements on information processing (I specifically look for information on a political topic that interests me, I read through an article on a political event in its entirety, I read through a background report on a political topic in its entirety); perception of information from the federal government on selected information channels in recent months (e.g. federal government websites, interviews of government politicians on television, etc.); credibility of information from the federal government on political topics.

2. Current interest in the topic: currently most interesting political or social topic (open question); currently most annoying political or social topic (open question); previously greater interest in the currently most annoying topic.

3. Attitudes towards the topic of the coronavirus pandemic (e.g. the topic interests me, the topic is socially relevant, bores me, annoys me, etc.).

4. Information behaviour and dealing with the topic of the coronavirus pandemic: self-assessment of current level of information about the coronavirus pandemic; frequency of certain behaviours in dealing with this topic (have myself frequently searched for information on the topic, have watched video reports on the topic on the Internet or television, have read articles on the topic in newspapers or on the Internet in full, have only skimmed articles on the topic, have talked about the topic with friends or acquaintances, have tried to change the topic when talking about the topic, have avoided the topic as much as possible).

5. Coverage of the coronavirus pandemic: agreement with statements on media coverage (too detailed, too complicated, too extensive, I consider credible, balanced, correct, only aims to influence people, contains many opinions I disagree with, I feel it is one-sided, does not reflect my own opinion on the topic at all, distracts from other important issues); statements on opinions in social media (already expressed own opinion on the topic of the coronavirus pandemic in social media, only read opinions of others on this topic there, have not yet read any opinions on this topic in social media); statements on public discussion in social media (contains many opinions with which I do not agree, I perceive as one-sided, does not reflect my own opinion on the topic at all, I perceive as factual, I perceive as helpful to hear new arguments); credibility of the information of the federal government on the topic of the coronavirus pandemic.

Demography: age (year of birth, average age, age groups); sex; education; vocational training; employment status; household size; number of children/adolescents under 16 in the household; federal state; former district classification Berlin (West/East); place of residence (West/East); Nielsen areas; city size; political orientation; migration background of the respondent or his/her parents; net household income.

Additionally coded were: Respondent ID, weight; political disenchantment (rough cluster: not disenchanted with politics, disenchanted with politics); information processing (2-cluster: rather thorough, rather superficial); information processing (3-cluster: thorough, occasionally thorough, superficial).