A Call to Contextualize Public Opinion-Based Research in Political Communication

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Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Our data replicated Almond and Verba’s original questionnaire but differs in collection mode. We employed an online survey panel administered by Survey Sampling International (SSI). The sample was designed to reflect the population of adults (age 18+) in the United States and Mexico. SSI uses a two-stage sampling process. First, subjects are randomly selected from each country’s online panel constructed along geographic and demographic parameters. Next, subjects are presented with profiling questions to create a final sample that is balanced regarding certain demographics: age, gender and education. Data collection was completed in April 2016.

2. Data were collected between May and July of 2018 using online survey panels administered by Qualtrics. The sample was designed to reflect the population of adults in China, Japan, South Korea and the United States. Qualtrics uses a two-stage sampling process. First, subjects are randomly selected from each country’s online panel constructed along geographic and demographic parameters. Then, subjects are presented with profiling questions to create a final sample that is balanced regarding certain demographics: age, gender, education and income.

3. For China, we calculated the difference in a feeling thermometer between the current leader Xi Jinping and previous leader Jiang Zemin.

4. The difference between the United States and South Korea is not statistically significant. All other are at least at the .01 level.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hernando Rojas

Hernando Rojas is Helen Firstbrook Franklyn Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Sebastián Valenzuela

Sebastián Valenzuela is Associate Professor in the School of Communications and Associate Researcher at the Millennium Institute for Foundational Research on Data (IMFD) and CIGIDEN at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.