Information Repertoires of the German Population

A continuous monitoring of the diversity of media and opinion in Germany requires not only studies on the level of media providers and their offers, but also systematic inventories of the information repertoires of the German population. On behalf of the federal commissioner for culture and media following a decision of the German Parliament, the Hans Bredow Institute will develop a concept for a regular (e.g. annual) survey on cross-media information repertoires of the German population.

A survey of this kind can make to make diversity-relevant functional shifts in available media and communication visible and to determine the meaning of classic media in the future, especially with regard to web 2.0 and social media. Also the question of key media in the digital era and in how far those are diversity-relevant or endangered with respect to their diversity can be answered. Furthermore, possible generation- or milieu-specific differences regarding perception, reception and processing of media and communication offerings and their impact on the diversity of media and opinions can be detected.

In its first phase the project will execute a synopsis of the academic and political discussion about user-related indicators for the plurality of opinion as well as an inventory of existing usage data. A qualitative pre-study, consisting of two to three group discussions with interviewees from different milieus (e.g. “information elite” and “information refusers”) aims to ensure that even extreme patterns of information use can be described adequately.

Pending grants in a second project phase the concept will be realised and tested with a pilot survey in order to reconstruct information repertoires of the population or certain demographic groups and describe them with regard to the role of different media types, offerings, communication services and specific providers. The questionnaires as well as the (also long-term) realisation will be coordinated with possible cooperation partners, especially with the responsible parties for the long-term study mass communication, the ARD/ZDF online study, the media analysis and the media user typology.

The project will be linked with the plan “Crossmediale Anbieter- und Angebotsstrukturen auf lokaler Ebene” [Crossmedia structures of providers and offerings on local level], which will be executed by the Formatt-Institute (Dortmund). For example, the categories for the acquisition of providers or offerings used by this study will be adopted as answers in the questionnaire. The complementarity on the level of cognition objects opens further connection opportunities, which meet the requirements of this plan to substantially contribute to the improvement of the image of media and opinion plurality.