This content analysis project examined values expressed in media editorials for six months in the five main dailies of the following countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, CSI (Russia, Ukraine), France and Germany. It covered October-December 1999 until January-March 2000. The project was undertaken by the Romanian Academic Society (Center for Political Communication Research) in cooperation with the Central European University and it was supported by the Media Network Program of the Open Society Institute Budapest.

The methodology used for content analysis, as well as the full databases country by country are now available for secondary analysis. If you wish to reproduce this project in your country or to query on the finalized project contact Laura Simionescu at laura.simionescu@sar.org.ro

Country Databases: Methodology; Bulgaria; Czech Republic; Estonia; Hungary; Latvia; Lithuania; Poland; Romania; Slovakia; CSI (Russia, Ukraine), France and Germany

Enlightened Participation. Lessons From The Fall 2000 Electoral Campaign

Political transition of Romania seems to lead to a widespread perception of a failure of politics. This was a project in political learning. We were interested in the role of the electoral campaign to provide voters with in-depth, clear and positive information on the candidates and the issues at stand. We designed the research with extreme caution, since no longitudinal study on a panel sample has been reported before in Romania, despite a few alleged attempts at something similar. The research draws mainly on a two-waves panel survey, measured by CURS in the first and last week of the 45 days electoral campaign. The sampling model was a two-stage random cluster sample and the sampling universe was the population of Romania. The questionnaires were slightly different the second wave compared to the first and were designed entirely by SAR. Despite having 1230 respondents in the first wave and 1205 in the second, the panel was reduced finally to only 755, due to a large number of refusals that we faced in the second wave.

This research was supported by the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

The 2000 panel on political learning of SAR is now available for secondary analysis. Since some restrictions due to contract with sponsors of this program, potential users are kindly asked to require permission in case secondary analysis finalizes in publishing. Write to laura.simionescu@sar.org.ro

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