International Journal of Public Opinion Research - Advance Access

American and German Elite Journalists' Attitudes Toward Election Polls

Wichmann, W., Brettschneider, F. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:10:26 PST

Opinion polls are a highly prominent feature in today’s reporting on election campaigns. But the relationship between journalists and opinion polls in the U.S. and Germany has been described as a rivalry in the past. This study presents results of two surveys that were carried out among American and German elite journalists. For the first time this study provides quantitative statements about the opinion of White House correspondents toward opinion polls and how they use poll results in their day-to-day business. Compared to results of a 2005 survey among members of the Bundespressekonferenz in Germany, this study reveals relevant similarities but also important differences between the attitudes of elite journalists in the two countries. In a nutshell, the findings lead to the conclusion that White House correspondents as well as members of the Bundespressekonferenz have a more confident than skeptical attitude toward scientific polling and the use of political poll results in their work. Even more, the results show that White House correspondents have a more confident attitude than their German colleagues.

Quality of Media Use Measurement

Coromina, L., Saris, W. E. — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:16:04 PST

Given the importance of the media in all societies, the Central Coordinating Team of the European Social Survey (ESS) asked Ken Newton to propose a module for Media use that could be used in the core questionnaire of the ESS. Together with the Central Coordinating Team of the ESS, a module for media use has been developed. This module allows the measurement of the "total time spent on the traditional media" (TV, radio, and newspapers), "the total time spent on political issues and current affairs in the media", and "the total time spent for other purposes in the media". These three measures are evaluated in this article. The questions asked are: How are these concepts operationalized? Can these measures be compared across countries? How should we compute the total time? How good are these measures and do we need these aggregated variables or should we rely on the separate measures of the use of different media?

Online Network Size, Efficacy, and Opinion Expression: Assessing the Impacts of Internet Use in China

Shen, F., Wang, N., Guo, Z., Guo, L. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:32:13 PST

The severe internet censorship implemented in China naturally raises substantial doubt about the potential democratic functions of the internet. This study presents some initial empirical evidence for internet use's impact on online opinion expression in Mainland China by analyzing three survey datasets collected by the World Internet Project in 2003, 2005, and 2007. Results reveal a positive relationship between internet use and online expression. The positive association is partially mediated by online network size, but not necessarily by internet efficacy. Although government censorship has in a measure successfully stifled people's; willingness to speak out, it is argued that the networking function of the internet could still bring incremental changes to the Chinese society through constructing loosely structured networks.

Changing Patterns in the Impact of Information on Party Choice in a Multiparty System

Hansen, K. M. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:32:12 PST

Simulations of changing levels of political knowledge among Danish voters in the 1971 and 2005 general elections reveal a strong impact on party choice. The analysis advances previous simulations from the American two-party system to a multiparty system by applying survey data from the Danish Election Studies. In both multiparty elections, the impact of information has significant consequences for party choice. In 1971, political knowledge seems to be the variable connecting class with party choice, whereas political knowledge seems to be the variable connecting issues with party choice in 2005. The information effects are greater than the effects observed in similar analyses of the American two-party system, thus suggesting a positive relationship between the number of parties and the impact of political knowledge. Finally, the analysis supports the notion that right-leaning parties tend to fare better if political knowledge increases.

A Fixed Effects Approach to Assessing Bias in Proxy Reports

Wagmiller, R. L. — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:12:02 PDT

Researchers often have to rely on one person to inform them about the characteristics and behaviors of another person. Recent efforts to study autobiographical memory, however, indicate that such proxy respondents encode, store, retrieve, and report memories differently than respondents reporting about themselves. These differences may make reports by proxy respondents more susceptible to bias. Unfortunately, many of the same practical challenges that make investigators reliant on proxy respondents also make it difficult to collect the validation information necessary to identify sources of bias in these reports. This study proposes a simple and cost-effective procedure for assessing certain common sources of response bias in proxy respondents’ reports. This procedure is based on the idea that members of the same group frequently can be presumed to share the same value on important factual or behavioral survey items. When this is the case, these methods can be used to identify sources of bias in proxy respondents’ reports as long as information from more than one group member has been collected for some groups.

Frame-Rich, Frame-Poor: An Investigation of the Contingent Effects of Media Frame Diversity and Individual Differences on Audience Frame Diversity

Huang, H. — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:12:01 PDT

An audience's interpretation of news is considered to involve the input of news frames and audience predispositions. This study proposes that media frame diversity and individual-level factors may both condition audience issue cognitions. Using two public issues in Taiwan that vary in news frame diversity and data from a sample survey, this study compares media and audience frames and examines factors that condition audience framing. Results show that media frame diversity corresponds to audience frame diversity at the aggregate level. Audience frames are more diverse in the more diverse news context, but are less diverse in the more uniform news context. Individual differences also affect audience framing. Education appears to be a strong predictor to audience frame diversity as more education increases audience frame diversity in both issue contexts. Other individual variables show differential effects on audience framing across the two issues. Overall, the findings suggest that, while effects of individual-level factors on broadening audience perspectives may vary with issues, diverse media frames may help to cultivate a more reflexive citizenry.

Ranking the Ratings: A Latent-Class Regression Model to Control for Overall Agreement in Opinion Research

Moors, G. — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:20:19 PDT

When rating questions are used to measure attitudes or values in survey research a researcher might want to control for the effect of overall agreement with the set of items that is rated. The need for controlling for overall agreement arises when the set of items refers to conceptual opposite perspectives, when balanced sets of items are used, or when a researcher is interested in relative preferences rather than overall agreement. In this paper, we introduce a method for filtering out overall agreement when a researcher's aim is to construct a latent class typology of respondents, that is, a latent-class ordinal regression model with random intercept. With this approach segments in the population are identified that differ in their relative preference of particular items over other items in the set. Examples are given on the concepts of locus of control, gender role attitudes and civil morality. The examples demonstrate that when an overall agreement is present in the data, the method is able to detect it, and at the same time allows identifying latent classes of respondents that differ in their relative preference of the items being rated.

Exposure to News, Political Comedy, and Entertainment Talk Shows, Concern about Security and Political Mistrust

Tsfati, Y., Tukachinsky, R., Peri, Y. — Wed, 20 May 2009 08:28:21 PDT

Previous research has demonstrated that exposure to news media increases viewers’ concerns about national security, as well as their mistrust of politicians and government. However, the contribution of entertainment media to security concerns and trust in government has received only scant attention in previous research, conducted mainly in the American context. The current investigation explores possible associations between exposure to news and political entertainment and concern about security and political mistrust using survey data (n = 512) collected in Israel in the aftermath of the 2006 Israel–Hezbollah conflict. Results demonstrate that exposure to entertainment talk shows was related to greater concern about security and high levels of political trust, while exposure to political comedy was related to reduced concerns about security and lower levels of political trust. News exposure was not significantly related to security concerns and political trust.