Televised Presidential Campaign Impact on Voters: 1972 Panel, Syracuse, New York

The major purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of television on voters during a presidential campaign. Of particular interest were the effects of television news and televised political advertising on people's political images and information. The interviews centered on respondents' use of television and their views on candidates and issues. Respondents were also asked about orientations such as party loyalty, which, while unlikely to be influenced directly by television, might mediate communication effects. The study was designed as a panel, with three pre-election personal interviews and one post-election telephone interview conducted with a random sample of adults living in the Syracuse, New York, metropolitan area. In the first survey in early September, 731 respondents were interviewed, and 650 of these were reinterviewed in early October, and again in early November, just before election day. Finally, 676 of the original 731 respondents were contacted for the brief post-election telephone interview. The data are organized in one file containing all four surveys in a single record for each respondent.