Mass-Media and Political Opinion Making (Survey)

Media usage and attitude to foreigners.

Topics: 1. media usage: frequency of reading selected magazines and
newspapers; assignment of newspapers and magazines to certain political
parties; length of subscription; preferred areas of reporting in
selected media; reading habits; attitude to a supposed one-sidedness of
the information in the mass-media; personal influence through letters
to the editor; television and radio use and preferred programs;
conversations about media reporting and type of conversation partner;
personal comparisons of reporting in different media; judgement on
objectivity, completeness of reporting, reliability and balance in the
mass-media; frequency of reception of news broadcasts; ranking list of
media regarding influence on one´s own political opinion making;
confirmation of one´s own political opinion through the media.

2. attitude to foreigners: judgement on the Federal Republic as a
country friendly or hostile to guest workers; assumed reasons for the
stay of foreigners in the Federal Republic; estimate of number of
foreigners living in the Federal Republic; judgement on one´s own
ability to distinguish Germans and foreigners and orientation
characteristics used for this; assessment of the occupational position
of most foreign employees; personal contacts with foreigners and place
of contact; personal impression of foreign acquaintances; attitude of
German friends and acquaintances to foreign employees; judgement on
media reporting on matters of concern and problems of foreigners;
knowledge about countries of origin of foreign employees and trips to
these countries; particularly well-informed about these countries and
sources of information; conversations about foreigners and type of
conversation partner; personal occupation with the foreigner problem;
judgement on the extent of media reporting in the mass-media on the
topic of foreigners and major topics of this reporting; judgement on
the extent and objectivity of reporting about the countries of origin
of foreign employees; judgement on the influence of the reporting in
view of integration or discrimination against foreigners; attitude to
the foreigner problem and to foreigners (scale); personal changes in
attitude regarding foreigners; confirmation of one´s own attitude to
foreigners through the media; attitude to a halt to the influx of
foreigners; preferred solution of the foreigner question in the Federal
Republic; maximum preferred proportion of foreigners in the residential
population; attitude to demonstrations by foreigners against a
deplorable state of affairs in their native countries; length of living
in Trier.

Demography: age; sex; marital status; number of children; religious
denomination; school education; occupational position; household
income; household size; size of place of residence in childhood; party
preference; citizenship.

Also encoded was: place of interview; date of interview; length of
interview; presence of third persons during interview; necessity of
explaining questions; reasons for breaking off the interview.