The questionnaire is constructed to assess perceptions, opinions, evalu-ations and professional behavioural patterns of elites in political communication, namely politicians, political spokespeople and political journalists.
Topics addressed include perceptions and evaluations regarding :
- the state of the political communication system
- routines and strategies in news production
- the relationship between politicians and journalists
- political orientations of actors and their professional roles.
To assure that its design allows the comparison of these orientations both within and in between the countries under study, the questionnaire primarily works with closed questions. Much care is taken to assure equivalence on the item level.
The data collection itself is then realized by means of computer-assisted telephone interviews, and will be carried out by a specialized survey institute.