Media Systems, News Content and Public Perception of Political Reality - Phone Survey Norway & USA, 2009

Public opinion constitutes one of the cornerstones of democracy. Citizens are assumed to hold preferences for particular polices, know where parties and candidates for office are located on the relevant policy dimensions, and cast their votes accordingly. In other words: Democracy functions best when its citizens are politically informed. In order to express attitudes and act according to their self-interest, citizens need relevant and up to date information about current affairs. In many respects, political relevant information is more widely available now than at any time in history. However, several scholars have questioned the quality and the form of information provided by the news media. A central hypothesis in this project is that media systems matter for the information available to the public. How commercial and public broadcasting is organised within a country, or the relative importance of newspapers to television, are all factors that can influence the information provided by the news media, and thus the potential effect on the public. The overall purpose of this project is to study the information given by the news media to the public, and how this information influences public's knowledge and perception of political reality.

The data set consists of a telephone survey on media use, public peceptions and political knowledge among residents in Norway and the U.S.

舆论是民主政治的基石之一。民众被假定会对特定政策持有偏好，知晓各政党与公职候选人在相关政策维度上的立场，并据此投票。换言之，当民众具备充分的政治认知时，民主制度方能发挥最佳效能。为了表达自身态度并依据自身利益行事，民众需要获取与时事相关的最新信息。在诸多方面，当下政治相关信息的可获得性远超历史上任何时期。然而，诸多学者对新闻媒体所提供信息的质量与形式提出了质疑。本项目的核心假设为：媒体体系对民众可获取的信息具有重要影响。一国之内商业广播与公共广播的组织模式，抑或报纸相较于电视的相对重要性，均会影响新闻媒体所提供的信息，进而对民众产生潜在影响。本项目的总体目标为研究新闻媒体向民众传递的信息，以及此类信息如何影响公众对政治现实的认知与了解。

本数据集包含一项针对挪威与美国民众的电话调查，内容涵盖媒体使用情况、公众认知及政治知识水平。