The National SOM Survey 1997

Since 1986 the research project 'Samhälle Opinion Massmedia' (SOM) has been carrying out an annual nation-wide survey of Swedish opinions. This is accordingly the twelfth survey in this series. The questionnaire was divided into six subject fields: mass media; politics and society; Sweden's relations to the rest of the world; energy, nuclear power and environment; leisure, media and public issues; and background. Most of the questions are replications of questions asked in one or several previous SOM surveys. New media questions dealt with newspaper reading on the internet. The respondents also had to state if they agreed or not with a number of statements concerning morning paper usage. Respondents were also asked about the Swedish EU-membership and the effect of the membership on different areas. A number of questions dealt with the respondent's willingness to pay more taxes if the money was used for environmental issues. New questions on media habits included: how often the respondent watched different programs on television; the reliability of different programs; reasons to watch different types of television programs; and opinions on a number of television personalities. The respondent also had to value how important a number of things are for a modern society to work properly. Furthermore there were questions about membership in religious denominations, geographical identity, domestic animals, media equipment mainly used by the respondent, and internet usage.

Purpose:
The main purpose is to establish time series that enable researchers to analyse how various changes in society affect people's attitudes and behaviour.

The SOM Institute also has an online tool for data analysis, where you can work with data from the national SOM surveys directly in your web browser. You can find it at https://som-institutet.se/dataanalys