The Illiberal Turn? News Consumption, Polarization and Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe, 2019-2020

The Illiberal Turn project aims to carry out the first-ever systematic, comparative study of news consumption and political polarization in Central and Eastern Europe, at a key point in time when the region is undergoing dramatic changes. The project employs comparative study of news consumption and political attitudes, using a novel multi-method analytical framework that combines survey data, media diaries, and qualitative interviews with audiences in four CEE countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Serbia. The quantitative element of the project involved a longitudinal and a comparative study. The longitudinal study was conducted during the European Parliament election campaign in May 2019 in the Czech Republic, and is comprised of digital tracking of news consumption, as well as pre-and post-election population surveys, which collect data about peoples’ media consumption habits, perceptions of the EU, general political attitudes and political participation, including voting. The comparative study consists of a population survey conducted between November 2019 and January 2020 in four countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Serbia. These questionnaires collect data about peoples’ a) sources of news and patterns of news consumption, as well as media bias perceptions; and b) political attitudes, support for populist and right-wing arguments, support for (liberal) democratic values, trust in democratic institutions, and political participation, including voting. The quantitative data uploaded here includes the two datasets (one for the longitudinal study and one for the comparative study), as well as their corresponding codebooks and questionnaires. The qualitative side of the project involved two rounds of qualitative semi-structured interviews, conducted between February and May 2020 (media diaries are not included herein). The first round of interviews, conducted in February and March 2020 in participants' native language, covered topics like every day routines, political engagement, the media environment, and news consumption routines and preferences; these interviews also made use of a 'card exercise', where participants ranked the personal importance of various media types and news sources (not included herein). In the second round of interviews participants were mainly asked to discuss their media diaries and the COVID-19 pandemic. The qualitative data uploaded here includes the Participant Information Sheets and Consent Forms (in English, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Serbian), First Interview Protocol (all languages), Second Interview Protocol (all languages), and English transcriptions of all first and second round interviews.