Mass-Media and Political Opinion Making (Survey)

Topics: 1. media usage: frequency of reading selected magazines and newspapers; assignment of newspapers and magazines to certain political parties; length of subscription; preferred areas of reporting in selected media; reading habits; attitude to a supposed one-sidedness of the information in the mass-media; personal influence through letters to the editor; television and radio use and preferred programs; conversations about media reporting and type of conversation partner; personal comparisons of reporting in different media; judgement on objectivity, completeness of reporting, reliability and balance in the mass-media; frequency of reception of news broadcasts; ranking list of media regarding influence on one´s own political opinion making; confirmation of one´s own political opinion through the media. 2. attitude to foreigners: judgement on the Federal Republic as a country friendly or hostile to guest workers; assumed reasons for the stay of foreigners in the Federal Republic; estimate of number of foreigners living in the Federal Republic; judgement on one´s own ability to distinguish Germans and foreigners and orientation characteristics used for this; assessment of the occupational position of most foreign employees; personal contacts with foreigners and place of contact; personal impression of foreign acquaintances; attitude of German friends and acquaintances to foreign employees; judgement on media reporting on matters of concern and problems of foreigners; knowledge about countries of origin of foreign employees and trips to these countries; particularly well-informed about these countries and sources of information; conversations about foreigners and type of conversation partner; personal occupation with the foreigner problem; judgement on the extent of media reporting in the mass-media on the topic of foreigners and major topics of this reporting; judgement on the extent and objectivity of reporting about the countries of origin of foreign employees; judgement on the influence of the reporting in view of integration or discrimination against foreigners; attitude to the foreigner problem and to foreigners (scale); personal changes in attitude regarding foreigners; confirmation of one´s own attitude to foreigners through the media; attitude to a halt to the influx of foreigners; preferred solution of the foreigner question in the Federal Republic; maximum preferred proportion of foreigners in the residential population; attitude to demonstrations by foreigners against a deplorable state of affairs in their native countries; length of living in Trier.

Demography: age; sex; marital status; number of children; religious denomination; school education; occupational position; household income; household size; size of place of residence in childhood; party preference; citizenship. Also encoded was: place of interview; date of interview; length of interview; presence of third persons during interview; necessity of explaining questions; reasons for breaking off the interview.