Political Online Communication

Information communication (media use) in general. Restrictions on information communication in general. Sociopolitical attitudes. Communication motives. Online access. Restrictions interpersonal and participatory communication. Quality assessments. 2002 federal election. information communication on September 11, 2001. Iraq. Anti-Americanism. Hartz IV. State elections. Climate change. Crises. Citizens´ initiatives.

Subjects: 1. The following subjects were asked identical questions repeatedly at each survey time point:
Information communication (media use) in general: television set in the household; reception frequency of news programs on television; most frequently watched news program; reception frequency of political TV magazines; number of days per week with daily newspaper use; interest in the topics of politics, economics, local affairs; reading of news magazines or weekly newspapers; query on news magazines or weekly newspapers read (Spiegel, Focus, Die Zeit); assessment of the economic situation in the country; interest in politics; online access: General online access; online access at home; most frequently used online access; time of first Internet use; duration of use per week; memberships (trade union, party and name of party, citizens´ initiative, environmental organization or animal protection organization, other organizations, name of other organizations); active or passive membership; Internet activities related to active participation; political participation: participation in a demonstration and in a public meeting and frequency of participation in the past year; frequency of own speaking at a public meeting; contacts with politicians (online, in person, by phone, or by mail) and frequency of contact; online letters to the editor in the past year and frequency of online letters to the editor; traditional letters to the editor in the past year and frequency of traditional letters to the editor on political issues; participation in online signature gathering and frequency of participation; participation in traditional signature gathering and frequency of participation; political donations.

Demography: highest educational attainment; vocational training attainment; employment; age (year of birth); nationality; net household income; income group; party affiliation; party identification; occupational status; household size; sex; federal state.

2. In at least one or more waves, the following questions were asked:
Duration of daily television use in minutes; daily newspapers read; interest in the topics of culture, sports and advertisements; use of the weekly newspaper Die Woche; recognition among friends for personal information about politics; political information from the newspaper enables participation and commitment to others (altruism); recognition among friends for personal information about politics in the media as well as personal benefit; restrictions Information conventional (foregoing newspaper for reasons of cost and lack of time, political reports in the newspaper are difficult to understand (political competence), too much effort); assessment of personal economic situation; general trust in persons; trust in institutions (Bundestag, authorities, federal government, courts, police, parties); opinion of media coverage (frequent reports on political scandals, negativism with regard to parties and politicians, support for democracy); satisfaction with democracy (school grades); value orientation (personal freedom versus security, personal freedom versus equality, security versus equality); value orientation (scale: respecting law and order, acknowledging others´ opinions, doing what others do, environmental awareness, Christian norms and values, pleasure, success, being technically up-to-date, thriftiness, doing nice things, having own children); psychological self-characterization based on pairs of opposites (Big 5); self-ranking left-right (split: right-left); media influence: Assessment of the political influence of the media and its development; media versus citizens have more influence on politics; political attitude (low responsiveness of politicians, low political influence conviction as citizens); restriction political effort and political competence; importance of selected communication motives: personal benefit, politics must pay off, altruism: personal commitment to others and social commitment, recognition: having a say in political discussions, political expertise is valued, participation: Knowing what´s happening in the country and where you live, not being surprised by political developments); online access at work, school, university, or other location; most used online access; Internet use in the last four weeks; type of online access at home; Internet use on the previous day and duration of use in minutes; restriction of Internet use (cost, poorly developed Internet technology, lack of skills, disruptions during Internet use (social pressure), Internet fascinates, more problems with computers than others, lack of time); exclusive use of Internet access at home; billing model of Internet access (flat rate or by usage); mobile online access; frequency of Internet use for: sending and receiving e-mails, conversation forums or newsgroups or chatting, searching for specific information, transferring or downloading files, surfing, computer games, home banking, online shopping: ordering books and CDs or other goods, going to the authorities); personal profile on an online network and frequency of use; number of profiles; frequency of sending links; restrictions Interpersonal and participation communication (politics is too complicated to be able to talk about it properly (competence), people in the circle of acquaintances do not like to talk about politics (social pressure), too little time for political conversations; opinion on political participation: Politics is too complicated to become politically active oneself (political competence), in the circle of acquaintances political engagement is not common (social pressure), too little time for political engagement); quality expectations of an online political offering (links and references to other political offerings, clear political line, conveying political information in a neutral way, possibility of protest, direct contact with those responsible, event dates, possibility of exchange, forum for different political positions, background and details on current political events, neglected topics, expressing one´s own opinion, concise presentation of the most important political events, detailed discussion of the background to current events, problems neglected in other media); information communication in general: Request for political brochures (online, by phone or by mail) and frequency of request in the last year; Internet search for political information and frequency; political topic of Internet search; benefit of online political information for own political participation at home or in the country; recognition among friends for searching for online political information; personal benefit, recognition by others and benefit for others (altruism) from online political information; restrictions online information (too much effort, difficult to understand (political competence); website of a politician visited; name of this politician; preferred online offer on daily political events and frequency of use in the last year; website of a party visited and indication of the party; frequency of reception of political weblogs, political articles on Wikipedia, political videos, podcasts or frequency of forwarding links to political topics; frequency of use of online networks for political activities and description of activity; membership in a sports club; active online participation in a party, citizens´ initiative, environmental organization or animal protection organization or other organization; share of the respective Internet activities in active participation; personal benefits and benefits for others from online participation in an organization or from participation in general; recognition among friends for online participation in an organization or for general participation; benefits of Internet activities or of active participation for one´s own political participation at home or in the country. of active participation for one´s own political participation at home or in the country; honorary office and area of honorary activity; contacts with public authorities online and conventionally for complaints and frequency of contact; personal benefit and recognition in the circle of friends through contact with politically responsible persons; topic of the last online letter to the editor and the last conventional letter to the editor; online commentary on a journalistic article written; personal benefit and benefit for others through online letters to the editor and conventional letters to the editor; online letters to the editor and traditional letters to the editor out of a sense of duty; recognition among friends for online letters to the editor and traditional letters to the editor; personal benefit from traditional letters to the editor; traditional letters to the editor out of a sense of duty; recognition among friends for traditional letters to the editor; restrictions against online letters to the editor and traditional letters to the editor (effort and political competence); personal benefit from participation in an online signature collection or a traditional signature collection; personal benefit from the participation in an online signature collection or a traditional signature collection. a conventional signature collection; conventional or online signature as a personal commitment to others (altruism) or out of a sense of duty; recognition in the circle of friends for participation in traditional or online signature campaigns; private homepage and duration of existence; use of homepage for political expression; own weblog and use for political expression; online political banners and stickers; personal benefit and recognition in the circle of friends by these online political banners and stickers; traditional and online request for political brochures and frequency; online political donations; indication of the organization resp. of donation purpose of online donations and conventional political donations; personal benefit and recognition in the circle of friends for political donations; political donations out of a sense of duty; political reference of one´s own Web 2. 0 offering; frequency of online conversations among friends about political topics; topic of these online conversations; personal benefit and benefit for others from online political conversations and recognition among friends; online political conversations enable political participation; restrictions on online political conversations (effort and political competence); frequency of political conversations at work or among friends and topic of these conversations; personal benefit and benefit for others from political conversations at work or among friends and recognition among friends for these political conversations; political conversations enable participation; restrictions on political conversations (effort and political competence); share of political activities in total online time; own political Web 2.0 offering created; podcast created; own video e.g. on ´YouTube´; quality rating of self-created offering; preferred website offering for online conversations; quality rating of this offering of interpersonal communication; quality rating of preferred offering of information communication; frequency of use of online offerings in the last year (Spiegel Online, Focus Online, Süddeutsche Online, FAZ. net, regional daily newspaper, RTL.de, online portals such as T-Online and from public broadcasters); quality ratings of these offers of information communication; voter turnout in the 2009 and 2004 European elections and voting decision; quality rating of selected sources of information on the European election.

2002 federal election: brochures requested online or conventionally, attendance at campaign meetings prior to the federal election, conventional and online contacts with politicians during the campaign, conventional political conversations about the 2002 election and respective frequency; online political conversations about the election (only if online communication was intensive) and frequency; frequency of attempts to persuade voters prior to the election; voter turnout in the 2002 federal election.

Information communication on 11. September 2001: Source of initial information about attacks; time and place of initial information; other sources of information about 9/11 used; information search on the Internet and specific type of Internet search (visit to known websites, search via search engines, interpersonal search on the Internet); other persons informed; information channel used (in person, phone call, via text message or e-mail); Opinion on selected statements about 9/11 (attacks as a crime that cannot be excused, attack against all liberal democracies, peaceful coexistence of cultures only possible with difficulty, events as a consequence of misguided U.S. policy, events happen to the U.S. rightly); personal opinion on German military involvement in the war on terror and anticipated public opinion; assessment (school grades) of media coverage of 9/11 (television, radio, daily newspaper, magazines and Internet); own willingness to speak on the topic of German military involvement in the war on terror.

Importance of selected political problem areas (unemployment, integration, international terrorism, high tax burden, conflict with Iran, open naming of other important problem areas); individual agenda: personal disadvantages due to law or political decision; problem to be solved urgently; importance of selected problem areas related to the economic crisis (social distress, power of banks and corporations, burden on middle class, neglect of environmental protection); most competent party to solve these problems.

Iraq: evaluation of the role of selected actors in the Iraq conflict (Germany, Iraqi population, UN, international terrorism, Saddam Hussein and USA); concern about Iraq conflict; personal opinion and anticipated public opinion on German military involvement in Iraq; own willingness to speak on the subject of German military involvement in the Iraq conflict.

Anti-Americanism: trips abroad (U.S., France, Russia, Turkey); frequency of stays in the U.S.; total length of stay in the U.S.; personal contacts with Americans; own sympathy for the U.S., France, Russia and Turkey; anticipated sympathy of Germans for the U.S.; opinion on selected statements about the U.S. (stronger focus on money, greater freedom of the individual, more superficial or diverse culture, reckless foreign policy, strong U.S. can provide international security); assessment of U.S. President Bush´s policies.

Hartz IV: Awareness of Hartz IV and own concern about it; perceived extent of change due to Hartz IV; beneficiaries of Hartz IV´s introduction; main culprits for high unemployment; assessment of Hartz IV (first step, necessary and right, goes too far); personal opinion and anticipated public opinion about Hartz IV; willingness to talk with supporters and opponents of Hartz IV; appropriate measures to influence reforms (talks, contacts with politicians and letters to the editor (online and conventional), blockades, attacks on Internet servers, participation in an authorized demonstration, violence against public property, participation in a meeting, a collection of signatures (online and conventional, own website, donation to organizations); assessment of media coverage of Hartz IV.

State election: preferred source of information on the state election; online source of information on the state election (open mention or on request); information about state election online in general or specific offer; visit to websites of ministries and authorities, environmental organizations, industry and business associations, large established media providers, private homepages, weblogs and Internet forums, Wikipedia).

Climate change: attitude toward global climate change (scale); own willingness to save energy (drive less, heat less, use energy-saving light bulbs, buy green electricity, buy energy-saving household appliances, travel less by airplane, commitment to stronger laws against climate change); attitude toward slimness craze (scale).

Crises: interest in negative events at the place of residence and in general; own behavior when crises occur at the place of residence (looking for causes, asking who is responsible, specifically seeking information, not caring); importance of selected sources of information when negative events occur at the place of residence (news in the media, website of the affected company, calling or e-mailing the company).

Citizens´ initiatives: role of citizens´ initiatives; willingness to found or become a member of a citizens´ initiative; active members of citizens´ initiatives were additionally asked: number of memberships in citizens´ initiatives; thematic occupation; duration of membership; information channel for initial information; activities of the citizens´ initiative.

Demography: religious affiliation; importance of religion to respondent; community size class.