ac: Political and Media Representation in Times of Crisis

Study Code

ac

Version and date of last revision

Version 1; October 16, 2025

Study Title

Political and Media Representation in Times of Crisis

Subject Classification

Political science/Communication

Keywords

Crisis communication, media access inequality, political representation

Data Collection Waves

ka

Principal Investigators

Name(s) and affiliations of principal investigators at time of submission	Persistent digital identifier(s) of principal investigator(s)
Michaela Maier, RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau	https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7505-691X
Silke Adam, University of Bern	https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=zGQtOdoAAAAJ&hl=de https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8022-9101

Abstract

Crisis situations change the information behavior of different population groups. While the demand for journalistic content is increasing for some (Adam et al. 2022), others are hardly or no longer reached by them. Women, younger people, and people with a low level of education and low income are particularly affected by this development (Bergström et al., 2019; Blekesaune et al., 2012; Esser & Steppat, 2017; Karlsen et al., 2020). The project investigates the questions

1. to what extent these population groups nevertheless have access to information on current socially relevant topics,
2. from which sources they obtain this information,
3. how the quality of the alternative information received is to be evaluated, and
4. what effects their reception has on citizens’ sense of representation by the traditional media and the political system.

Following Dvir-Gvirsman et al. (2022) and drawing on the theoretical framework of Pitkin (1972), we understand representation along a descriptive, a symbolic and a substantive dimension. In addition, we extend the substantive dimension with the concept of De Mulder (2023), which divides it into four sub-dimensions (listen-, know-, act-, succeed- dimension).

In the Israeli election study, Dvir-Gvirsman et al. (2022) combine Pitkin’s dimensions with the ideas of Weissberg (1978), who divides political representation into aspects of dyadic and collective representation: dyadic as a form of direct representation by one person or a group of people and collective as representation by a whole institution.

Measured constructs/concepts and corresponding data collection waves

Constructs/concepts	Corresponding indicators (survey measures)	Data Collection Waves
Discussion Politics	Wenn Sie mit Freunden oder Verwandten zusammen sind, wie häufig diskutieren Sie über ... When you are with friends or relatives, how often do you discuss ... Q: ... Landespolitik oder lokale politische Angelegenheiten? R: häufig gelegentlich niemals Q: ... politics at the federal state level or local political affairs? R: frequently occasionally never Q: ... die deutsche Politik? R: häufig gelegentlich niemals Q: ... German politics? R: frequently occasionally never Q: ... europäische politische Angelegenheiten? R: häufig gelegentlich niemals Q: ... European political affairs? R: frequently occasionally never	ka
Media and Politics	Und wie häufig erfahren Sie in den Medien (z.B. Fernsehen, Radio, Zeitung, Internet), etwas über ... And how often do you hear something in the media (e.g. television, radio, newspaper, Internet) about ... Q: ... Landespolitik oder lokale politische Angelegenheiten? R: häufig gelegentlich niemals Q: ... politics at the federal state level or local political affairs? R: frequently occasionally never Q: ... die deutsche Politik? R: häufig gelegentlich niemals Q: ... German politics? R: frequently occasionally never Q: ... europäische politische Angelegenheiten? R: häufig gelegentlich niemals Q: ... European political affairs? R: frequently occasionally never	ka
Level problems	Q: Auf welcher politischen Ebene sollen diese Probleme Ihrer Ansicht nach gelöst werden? R: Auf europäischer Ebene Auf nationaler Ebene/in Deutschland Auf Landesebene oder kommunaler Ebene Q: At what political level do you think these problems should be solved? R: At European level At national level/Germany At federal state or municipal level	ka
Image EU	Q: Ganz allgemein gesprochen, welches Bild ruft die EU bei Ihnen hervor? Ein ... R: ... sehr negatives. ... ziemlich negatives. ... weder positiv noch negatives. ... ziemlich positives. ... sehr positives. Weiß nicht Q: Generally speaking, what image does the EU conjure up in your mind? A … R: ... very negative image. ... quite negative image. ... neither positive nor negative image. ... pretty positive image. ... very positive image. Don't know	ka
Most Important Problems (MIP)	Q: Was sind Ihrer Meinung nach die derzeit drei wichtigsten politischen Probleme? R: Kriminalität Die wirtschaftliche Lage Steigende Preise / Inflation / Lebenshaltungskosten Steuern Arbeitslosigkeit Terrorismus Ukraine-Krieg Wohnungsbau / Wohnungsbeschaffung Staatsverschuldung Einwanderung Gesundheit Das Bildungssystem Renten Umwelt und Klimawandel Energieversorgung Die internationale Lage Sonstiges, und zwar ... Nichts davon Weiß nicht Q: In your opinion, what are the three most important political problems at the moment? R: Crime The economic situation Rising prices / inflation / cost of living Taxes Unemployment Terrorism Ukraine war Housing construction / housing procurement Public debt Immigration Health The education system Pensions Environment and climate change Energy supply The international situation Other, namely ... None of the above I don't know	ka

References

Adam, S., Urman, A., Arlt, D., Gil-Lopez, T., Makhortykh, M., & Maier, M. (2022). Media trust and the COVID-19 pandemic: An analysis of short-term trust changes during crisis and their relation to usage patterns in switzerland. Communication Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/00936502221127484

Bergström, A., Strömbäck, J., & Arkhede, S. (2019). Towards rising inequalities in newspaper and television news consumption? A longitudinal analysis, 2000–2016. European Journal of Communication, 34(2), 175–189.

Blekesaune, A., Elvestad, E., & Aalberg, T. (2012). Tuning out the world of news and current affairs: An empirical study of europe’s disconnected citizens. European Sociological Review, 28(1), 110–126.

De Mulder, A. (2022). Making sense of citizens’ sense of being represented: A novel conceptualisation and measure of feeling represented. Representation, 59(4), 633–657.

Dvir-Gvirsman, S., Tsuriel, K., Sheafer, T., Shenhav, S., Zoizner, A., Lavi, L., Shamir, M., & Waismel-Manor, I. (2022). Mediated representation in the age of social media: How connection with politicians contributes to citizens’ feelings of representation. Evidence from a longitudinal study. Political Communication, 39(6), 779–800.

Esser, F., & Steppat, D. (2017). News media use: International comparative research. In P. Rössler, C. A. Hoffner, & L. van Zoonen (Eds.), The international encyclopedia of media effects. John Wiley & Sons.

Hayes, A. F., Glynn, C. J., & Shanahan, J. (2005). Willingness to self-censor: A construct and measurement tool for public opinion research. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 17(3), 298–323.

Karlsen, R., Beyer, A., & Steen-Johnsen, K. (2020). Do high-choice media environments facilitate news avoidance? A longitudinal study 1997–2016. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 64(5), 794–814.

Maier, M., Gil-Lopez, T., Bromme, L., Vogel, I., Christner, C., Zinkernagel, A., Adam, S., Schmitt, M., & Tillman, E. (2023). The interplay between explicit and implicit populist radical-right attitudes in germany and switzerland. Political Psychology, 44(6), 1235–1258. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12895

Pitkin, H. F. (1972). The concept of representation. University of California Press.

Weissberg, R. (1978). Collective vs. Dyadic representation in congress. American Political Science Review, 72(2), 535–547.