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This special topic poll, conducted January 6-7, 1997, sought respondents' views on national and local media practices. Respondents were asked to rate the ethics and honesty of television and print news media, as well as of politicians, corporations, average Americans, and the Clinton Administration. Those polled were asked whether they approved of the way national network television and local television stations reported the news, and whether the news media cared more about the accuracy of a story or being the first to report it. Views were also sought on the media's treatment of politicians, various socioeconomic classes, religious and political groups, celebrities, the military, the police, the government, and corporations. Respondents also rated their enjoyment of news reports on celebrities and politicians, and commented on the relevance of news stories to their lives. Additional topics covered the influence of network television news on viewers, the benefits and drawbacks of investigative news reporting, the media's respect or disrespect of privacy, the power of the media to limit political corruption and unfair business practices, and how often respondents watched television evening news programs. Demographic variables included sex, race, age, education level, household income, employment status, political party affiliation, political philosophy, and type of residential area (e.g., urban or rural).

The Afrobarometer project was designed to collect and disseminate information regarding Africans' views on democracy, governance, economic reform, civil society, and quality of life. This particular survey was concerned with the attitudes and opinions of the citizens of Cape Verde. Respondents in a face-to-face interview were asked to rate their president and the president's administration in overall performance, to state the most important issues facing their nation, and to evaluate the effectiveness of certain continental and international institutions. Opinions were gathered on the role of the government in improving the economy, whether corruption existed in government, and whether government officials were responsive to problems of the general population. Respondents were also asked whether local government officials, the police, the army, the courts, the overall criminal justice system, the National Electoral Commission, the Ministry of Finance Tax Official, and political parties could be trusted. Additionally, respondents were polled on their level of freedom, taxes, what kind of society they most wanted to see, equal rights regarding gender, their role in the community, and political action and activities. Economic questions addressed the past, present, and future of the country's and the respondents' economic conditions, and respondents' living conditions. In addition, opinions were sought on a range of additional issues specific to Cape Verde. These issues included living and economic conditions, problems with local public schools, crime, and citizenship. Background variables include age, gender, ethnicity, education, religious affiliation and participation, political party affiliation, language spoken most at home, current and past employment status, and language used in the interview.

The Afrobarometer project was designed to collect and disseminate information regarding Africans' views on democracy, governance, economic reform, civil society, and quality of life. This particular survey was concerned with the attitudes and opinions of the citizens of Togo. Respondents in a face-to-face interview were asked to rate their president and the president's administration in overall performance, to state the most important issues facing their nation, and to evaluate the effectiveness of certain continental and international institutions. Opinions were gathered on the role of the government in improving the economy, whether corruption existed in government, and whether government officials were responsive to problems of the general population. Respondents were also asked whether local government officials, the police, the army, the courts, the overall criminal justice system, the National Electoral Commission, the Tax Department, and political parties could be trusted. Additionally, respondents were polled on their level of freedom, taxes, what kind of society they most wanted to see, equal rights regarding gender, their role in the community, and political action and activities. Economic questions addressed the past, present, and future of the country's and the respondents' economic conditions, and respondents' living conditions. In addition, opinions were sought on a range of additional issues specific to Togo. These issues included political reform, the justice system, political life, and cost of education. Background variables include age, gender, ethnicity, education, religious affiliation and participation, political party affiliation, language spoken most at home, current and past employment status, and language used in the interview.

This study is part of a time-series collection of national surveys fielded continuously since 1952. The election studies are designed to present data on Americans' social backgrounds, enduring political predispositions, social and political values, perceptions and evaluations of groups and candidates, opinions on questions of public policy, and participation in political life. In addition to the usual content, the study contains specific inquiries into the impact of the mass media, perceptions of the financial, business, and economic conditions of the nation, and measures of personal esteem, trust, and quality of life.

This study is part of a time-series collection of national surveys fielded continuously since 1948. The election studies are designed to present data on Americans' social backgrounds, enduring political predispositions, social and political values, perceptions and evaluations of groups and candidates, opinions on questions of public policy, and participation in political life. Substantive themes of the 1998 election study include, among others, knowledge and evaluation of the House candidates and placement of the candidates on various issue dimensions, interest in the political campaigns, attentiveness to the media's coverage of the campaign, media use, evaluation of the mass media, vote choice, partisanship, and evaluations of the political parties and the party system. Additional items focused on political participation, political mobilization, evaluations of the president and Congress, the "Lewinsky affair," egalitarianism, moral traditionalism, political trust, political efficacy, ideology, cultural pluralism, and political knowledge. Respondents were also asked about their attitudes toward a wide range of issues, including social policy, racial policy, military and foreign policy, immigration, foreign imports, prayer in schools, school vouchers, the environment, the death penalty, women's rights, abortion, as well as religion and politics, including new measures of explicitly political and religious orientations. Demographic variables include respondent's age, sex, nationality, marital status, employment status, occupation, and education.

Conducted in 1998, 2000, and 2002 by the Pew Center for the People and the Press, the Biennial Media Consumption Survey measured the public's use of, and attitudes toward, the Internet and traditional news outlets. Respondents were asked questions concerning their use of newspapers, television news, radio news, and news magazines, including specific programs and publications. Additional questions were asked about respondents' use of the Internet as a news source, in relation to other sources of news. Of particular interest to arts and cultural policy researchers is a question that assesses how closely respondents follow news about "culture and the arts," as well as a dozen other topics. Respondents were also asked a series of questions about the role of the news in their lives and their level of interest in different types of news. In the 1998 survey, respondents were asked to describe in a single word or phrase their impression of either the national or local news media. The 2000 survey included a special set of questions on where people get news about the stock market and financial investing. In the 2002 survey, respondents were also asked a series of questions about the role of the news in their lives and their level of interest in different types of news. Telephone interviews were conducted among a nationwide sample of 3,002 adults, 18 years of age or older, during the period of April 24 to May 11, 1998. In 2000, 3,142 interviews were conducted during the period of April 20 to May 13, 2000. In 2002, 3,002 interviews were conducted during the period of April 26 to May 12, 2002.

The Eurobarometer series is a unique cross-national and cross-temporal survey program conducted on behalf of the European Commission. These surveys regularly monitor public opinion in the European Union (EU) member countries and consist of standard modules and special topic modules. The standard modules address attitudes towards European unification, institutions and policies, measurements for general socio-political orientations, as well as respondent and household demographics. The special topic modules address such topics as agriculture, education, natural environment and resources, public health, public safety and crime, and science and technology. This round of Eurobarometer surveys covered the following special topics among respondents aged 16 to 30 years: (1) Mobility, (2) Job Training and Education, (3) Institutional Impact, (4) Social and Political Life, and (5) Climate Change. Respondents' opinions were collected regarding their mobility within the European Union, and how this affected their ability to study, train, and work. Respondents were also asked about training, school and university education in their own respective countries as well. Additional questions were asked regarding EU institutions and the impact of the EU initiative known as 'Youth Guarantee.' Respondents were also asked about their socioeconomic position in society, the impact of recent economic crises on their economic and social lives, and their attitudes toward environmental and climate change. In addition, respondents were also asked about their relationship to online social networks, as well as public life in the EU in general. Demographic and other background information collected includes age, gender, nationality, marital status, occupation, age when stopped full-time education, household composition, ownership of a fixed or mobile telephone and other goods, difficulties in paying bills, level in society, and Internet use. In addition, country-specific data includes type and size of locality, region of residence, and language of interview (select countries).

The State of the First Amendment survey, conducted annually (since 1997, except for 1998) examines public attitudes toward freedom of speech, press, religion, and the rights of assembly and petition. Core questions, asked each year, include awareness of First Amendment freedoms, overall assessments of whether there is too much or too little freedom of speech, press, and religion in the United States, levels of tolerance for various types of public expression (such as flag-burning and singing songs with potentially offensive lyrics), levels of tolerance for various journalistic behaviors, attitudes toward prayer in schools, and level of support for amending the Constitution to prohibit flag-burning or defacement. There were additional (non-core) questions asked for each year the survey was conducted. Each year, the additional questions asked about the following topics: 1997: how important various Constitutional rights are to people, whether people engaged in various kinds of public or political behaviors during the past year, and how free people feel to speak their minds in various settings 1999: attitudes toward alcohol and tobacco advertisements, levels of tolerance for sexually explicit content in various media, and attitudes toward television and Internet content ratings 2000: attitudes toward the role of government in political campaigns, the role of religion and the use of religious materials in classrooms, and attitudes toward government regulation of content on the Internet 2001: attitudes toward the creation of the federal Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and attitudes toward the regulation of political campaign contributions 2002: attitudes toward media coverage of the "war on terrorism," whether the government has the right to monitor the activities of religious groups even if it means infringing upon religious freedoms, and levels of support for public access to various types of local government records 2003: attitudes toward corporate ownership of news organizations, media coverage of the Iraq War and "the war on terrorism," whether the government has the right to monitor the activities of religious groups even if it means infringing upon religious freedoms, and whether controversial political remarks by entertainers affect the likelihood of attending performances or purchasing products featuring such entertainers 2004: the effort to amend the Constitution to ban flag-burning, proposals to expand regulation of so-called indecent material in the media, attempts by government officials and private advocates to lower the "wall of separation between church and state," and scandals involving made-up stories and facts at major news organizations 2005: attitudes toward religious freedom in the workplace, freedom of expression in the public schools, the display of the Ten Commandments in public buildings, the confidentiality of library records, and government's ability to restrict various types of content in public broadcasts 2006: whether the press should be allowed to publish works that criticize the actions of the government during wartime and whether political candidates should be allowed to criticize the actions of the government while campaigning during wartime For each survey year, computer-aided telephone interviews (CATI) were conducted, and ,the number of respondents across the data files ranges from 1,000 to 1,025.

This data collection represents a loose collaboration between Georgetown University's Center for Democracy and Civil Society (CDACS) and the European Social Survey (ESS). The data in Part 1 are from the United States Citizenship, Involvement, Democracy (CID) Survey, which was conducted between mid-May and mid-July of 2005, and consists of in-person interviews with a representative sample of 1,001 Americans who responded to an 80-minute questionnaire. The CID survey is a study of American civic engagement, social capital, and democracy in comparative perspective, and it provides perspective on citizen participation in both the public and private realms. The CID survey is integrated with several elements of a module from the 2002 version of the ESS, which was administered in 22 European countries. In addition to the replicated questions from the ESS, the CID survey includes questions related to the themes of social capital, activities in formal clubs and organizations, informal social networks and activities, personal networks (strong and weak ties), the composition and diversity of ties and associations, trust (in other people, the community, institutions, and politicians), local democracy and participation, democratic values, political citizenship, social citizenship, views on immigration and diversity, political identification, ideology, mobilization and action, and tolerance (concerning views and attitudes, least-liked groups, and racial stereotypes). In order to facilitate and encourage the common use of several key variables, and to help individual users to avoid having to create certain scales and indices, the data in Part 1, Citizenship, Involvement, Democracy Survey Data (US Only), also include the following constructed variables: generalized trust, political action, party identification, participation in voluntary organizations, citizenship norms, the diversity of social networks, racial prejudice/negative stereotypes, national pride, attitudes toward immigrants, and demographic factors. The data in Part 2, 2002 European Social Survey (ESS) Data Integrated with US Data, comprise the responses from the 2002 ESS merged with the responses from the US CID, but only contains the questions common to both the US CID and the 2002 ESS (without any constructed variables). The central aim of the ESS is to measure and explain how people's social values, cultural norms, and behavior patterns are distributed, the way in which they differ within and between nations, and the direction and speed at which they are changing. Data collection for the ESS takes place every two years, by means of face-to-face interviews of around an hour in duration. Demographic variables for Part 1 and Part 2 include race, gender, age, marital status, income, religious preference, and highest level of education.