conference programme book - European Survey Research ...

78 WEDNESDAY 20 JULY2.14 Pung Context into Cross-naonal Research ITo be held on July 20, 2011 from: 11:00 to 12:30, in room 319.Coordinated by:• Ineke Stoop - The Netherlands Instute for Social Research/SCP, Netherlands• Eric Harrison - City University London, United Kingdom2.14.1 When is an event an event? The contribuon of media reporng to the survey contextI. Stoop 1 , E. Harrison 21 The Netherlands Instute for Social Research/SCP, Netherlands; 2 City University London, United KingdomUsers of cross-naonal surveys are aware that atudinal data may be affected by the socio-polical contextprevailing in parcular countries at the me. Some elements of naonal context, such as the rate of unemploymentor of economic growth are easier to measure than others; the data is readily available and straighorwardto merge on to the main dataset. Informaon about major ’events’ taking place during the fieldwork period ismore problemac to operaonalise.2.14.2 What is in the news? A comparison between the tradional and Polical Claims-making Approachof collecon informaon on events in the ESS.H. Fernee 11 The Netherlands Instute for Social Research/SCP, NetherlandsIn the first four rounds of the European Social Survey (ESS) data was collected about events reported in themedia for each parcipang country which resulted in an event database. Again in round five this kind ofevent data will be collected as well as data based on a different method namely the Polical Claims-makingApproach (PCA). Both methods have a different view how to code a media event. In the tradional methodevents where coded as an event itself and in the PCA method the ’claims’ about an event made by a relevantactors are coded.2.14.3 Event Data and Claims Analysis: improving European Social Survey’s media event approachA. Torres 1 , R. Brites 1 , D. Carvalho 21 Instuto Superior do Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresa - ISCTE, Portugal; 2 CIES-IUL, PortugalContextualizing longitudinal and cross-naonal surveys is crucial in order to increase its analycal capacity, notonly resorng to demographic, economic and polical stascs but namely through the collecon of mediaevents. These can be used to ”measure” the social, polical and economic climate before, aer and during thefieldwork period and are therefore an addional value for explaining the differences and changes in opinionsand atudes between and within countries.2.14.4 Reliability in the coding of polical claimsM. Cuesta Azofra 3 , M. Hierro 2 , M. Torcal 11 Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain; 2 UPF, Spain; 3 Centro de Invesgaciones Sociológicas (CIS), SpainThe study of the influence that the polical context yields upon respondents’ answers in atude surveys hasbeen a recurring topic of the public opinion literature. Despite this, previous research has devoted lile attenonto the measurement of the polical context on itself. Recent aempts, such as the European SocialSurvey’ events database or the polical claims database, intends to fill this gap. In this regard, coding reliabilityemerges as an issue that must be taken into account very seriously in the process of data creaon.