| Abstract | |
| Survey Number | 1077 |
| Survey Title | Survey on Web Use and Political Knowledge, 2014-2015 |
| Depositor | KG Research Center for Social Psychology |
| Restriction of Use |
For detailed information, please refer to 'For Data Users' on the SSJDA website.
- Apply to SSJDA. SSJDA's approval is required. |
| Educational Purpose | Available for both research and instructional purposes. |
| Period of Data Use Permission | One year |
| Access to Datasets | Download |
| SSJDA Data Analysis | SSJDA Data Analysis (online data analysis & metadata browsing system) is available for this data. |
| Summary |
The objective of this survey was to clarify the impact of biased information acquired through social media, news curation apps, and other online services on attitudes and behavior expected from people in democratic societies, such as political knowledge and interest, political participation, and tolerance. When the media environment was based on conventional mass media, the electorate was provided with minimum political information regardless of personal preferences, which served as the foundation of democratic governments. However, social networks and news curation apps, which are growing more popular every year, are types of media that, depending on differences in personal preferences and how they are managed, can result in completely different information. On the other hand, there are also Internet portals, which despite also being an online service, are meant to reduce the differences due to the preferences of the users. Therefore, this survey provides a glimpse of the use of media to promote or control information bias, as well as the consequences of information bias. This survey was conducted in two waves: the first was in November 2014 and the second was in June 2015. |
| Data Type | quantitative research: micro data |
| Universe | |
| Unit of Observation | Individual |
| Sample Size |
(1)First wave Number of responses: 2,250 people (1,125 men, 1,125 women) (2) Second wave Number of responses: 1,762 people (891 men, 871 women) |
| Date of Collection |
2014-11 ~ 2014-11 (1)First wave November 2014 (2)Second wave June 2015 |
| Time Period |
2014 ~ 2014 |
| Spatial Unit | |
| Sampling Procedure |
Non-probability: Quota
First, a screening survey was conducted in October 2014 with 17,637 access panel members registered on Fastask. It is inevitable that among the online access panels, there were some that were registered to take the online survey and to receive the reward that tried to minimize the cost of answering the questions. Since answers given without the respondent having read the questions could distort the result, the respondents that tended to provide careless answers were identified in advance and excluded from this survey. For the screening process, two scales (five-point method) that include inverted items were used: the just-world scale (Konno and Hori, 1998) and the “objectivity” item of critical thinking disposition scale (Hirayama and Kusumi, 2004). A stratification based on gender and age (20 to 60 years and older) was made, and the survey was requested so that the number of respondents in the 2 × 5 = 10 cells became as equal as possible. A total of 1,812 respondents who kept choosing the same answer other than “3 = Neither agree nor disagree” in one of the scales were excluded from this survey. The answers in the screening survey are not included in the publicly released data. (1) First wave The initial target was to obtain 2,000 responses, but ultimately, 2,250 people participated. (2) Second wave Among the 2,250 respondents in the first wave, 2,212 that remained registered as access panels on Fastask in June 2015 were requested to respond in the second wave, out of which 1,762 responded. |
| Mode of Data Collection | Self-administered questionnaire: Web-based (CAWI) This survey was conducted using Fastask, the web survey service provided by JustSystem corporation |
| Investigator | KG Research Center for Social Psychology (Kazunori Inamasu and Asako Miura), survey carried out by JustSystem corporation |
| DOI | 10.34500/SSJDA.1077 |
| Sponsors (Funds) | This survey was funded by the JSPS Grants-in-Aid for Young Researchers (B): 26870749. |
| Related Publications (by the Investigator) | Please refer to the abstract in Japanese. |
| Related Publications (based on Secondary Analysis) | List of related publications (based on Secondary Analysis) |
| Documentation | 【 Questionnaire（Wave 1） 】 【 Questionnaire（Wave 2） 】 |
| Major Survey Items |
(1) First wave [Face items] - Gender, age, prefecture of residence, area of residence - Occupation, marital status, presence of children, highest level of educational attainment [Questionnaire items] - Use of the Internet (blogs, Facebook, mixi, Twitter, LINE, Google+, GREE, and online community/forums) - Level of connections on social networks (personal accounts of politicians or journalists and official accounts on mass media) - Frequency of seeing acquaintances citing articles related to political/social issues on blogs and SNS. - Frequency of reading a newspaper/watching TV programs (national newspaper, sports newspaper or evening paper, NHK news program, commercial broadcasting news program, commercial news show, tabloid show, and variety program) - Average time of internet usage (weekdays/weekends) - Frequency of use of websites and apps to read news on the Internet (news portal topics, pages other than news portal topics, newspaper site, news application, and aggregation sites) - Perception of watching TV (“I mainly watch TV for leisure,” “I don’t like missing the news,” and so on) - Programs that the respondent would watch if they were aired at 9 pm (news program, cooking program, variety program, two-hour-long drama, drama series, and news commentary program) - Knowledge of the news about politics, international issues, entertainment, and sports - Level of attention given to politics, thoughts on politics and elections, and trust in others - Capacity to talk to people with different views on society (family members, superiors and senior coworkers, close colleagues, and close friends) - Thoughts on population diversity and democracy - Daily amount of free time (weekdays/weekends) (2) Second wave [Face items] - Highest level of educational attainment [Questionnaire items] - Use of the Internet (blogs, Facebook, mixi, Twitter, LINE, Google+, GREE, and online community/forums) - Level of connections on social networks (personal accounts of politicians or journalists and official accounts on mass media) - Frequency of seeing acquaintances citing articles related to political/social issues on blogs and SNS. - Device used more often when using the Internet, PC or smartphone/mobile phone - Frequency of reading a newspaper/watching TV programs (national newspaper, sports newspaper or evening paper, NHK news program, commercial broadcasting news program, commercial broadcasting news shows, tabloid show, and variety program) - Frequency of use of websites and apps to read news on the internet (news portal topics, pages other than news portal topics, newspaper site, news application, and aggregation sites) - Programs that the respondent would watch if they were aired at 9 pm (news program, cooking program, variety program, two-hour-long drama, drama series, and news commentary program) - Knowledge of the news about politics, international issues - Level of attention given to politics, thoughts on politics and elections, and trust in others - Capacity to talk to people with different views on society (family members, superiors and senior coworkers, close colleagues, and close friends) - Thoughts on population diversity and democracy - Vote/abstention on elections of the House of Representatives (December 2014), party of the candidate of choice, and party of choice in proportional representation - Experience with elections and political activities (November 2014 onward) |
| Date of Release | 2017/02/08 |
| Topics in CESSDA |
Click here for details Information society Political behaviour and attitudes Religion and values Social conditions and indicators |
| Topics in SSJDA | Information/Communication/Mass Media Politics/Administration/Election Society/Culture |
| Version | 1 ： 2017-02-08 |
| Notes for Users |