Political Tasks with a Particular Need for Action (November 2024)

The study on political information behavior and disinformation was conducted by infrastest dimap on behalf of the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government. In the survey period 11.11.2024 - 30.11.2024, the German-speaking population aged 14 and over was surveyed in telephone interviews (CATI) and online interviews (CAWI) on the following topics: interest in politics and being informed about political issues, media and information use, importance of information sources for forming one´s own opinion and dealing with disinformation. The respondents were selected using a multi-stage random sample according to the RDD method. The sample for the web-based survey was drawn from an online access panel using a stratified random sample. The findings are supplemented by insights that Ipsos gained on behalf of the BPA with the help of an online community with 57 participants and in 25 individual qualitative online interviews with people of all ages in October and November 2024. The results report for this qualitative study is available in the archive, but not the corresponding data. 1. Political information behavior: Interest in political issues; informedness about political issues; frequency of use of different media and information sources for information on political issues. 2. Role of social media for political information behavior: use of social networks on the internet; news on political topics seen in the last week on various social networks (TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, X, formerly Twitter); use of messenger services on the smartphone; news on political topics seen in the last week on various messenger services (WhatsApp, Snapchat, Signal, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, other messenger services). 3. Dealing with disinformation: Reading, searching and posting behavior when looking for information about political topics online - frequency (I specifically search for information on a political topic that interests me, I accidentally come across political topics on social networks, news apps or news portals that pique my interest, I skim the headlines on social networks, news apps or news portals, I read an article about a political event in full, I watch a video or listen to a podcast on a political topic, I tell other people about articles or videos I have seen on the internet, I share or comment on articles or videos about political topics via social networks (e.g. Facebook, Twitter or XING). e.g. Facebook, Twitter or X, Instagram, WhatsApp). 4. Interpersonal communication: frequency of everyday political communication on various occasions (at work, at school or university, in personal conversations with friends, in the family, when using social networks on the internet, in leisure time/hobbies); taboo topics in everyday political communication with friends (split A) with acquaintances or colleagues (split B): Immigration, migration, refugees, war in Ukraine, situation in the Middle East, climate policy, gender language, gender policy, East Germany, reunification, right-wing extremism, social justice, citizens´ income. 5. Importance of information sources for forming one´s own opinion: Importance of different sources of information for forming one´s own political opinion (news and information from journalists, speeches and contributions from politicians, opinions from family members, friends and acquaintances, information from the federal government, information on the Internet from celebrities or from ordinary people); agreement with statements on fake news (With the abundance of information, you don´t even know what to believe anymore, I´m worried that I myself could fall for false or misleading news, I´m afraid that others will be influenced by false or misleading news). 6. Federal government communication: perception of information provided by the federal government (on the federal government´s website, on federal government pages in social media, in federal government brochures or magazines, on federal government posters, from interviews with government politicians on television, in newspapers or on the internet); satisfaction with the information provided by the federal government (overall rating); reasons for criticism of the information provided by the federal government (open); desire for more information on fake news from the following sources: From the media, from the federal government, from bloggers who deal with it, from operators of social networks on the Internet, from schools and universities; no information on this desired). 7. Political segmentation variables: satisfaction with democracy; party sympathy. Demography: age; age groups; sex; household size; number of children in household under 14 years; highest general educational qualification; desired educational qualification; employment; migration background of respondent; migration background of parents; net household income (classified); internet use. Additionally coded were: Interview number; federal state; district; city size (political municipality size); weighting factors.