Skip to content
MyData Login
 

Description & Citation--Study No. 7990

Bibliographic Description

ICPSR Study No.:7990
 
Persistent URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR07990
 
Title:Presidential Campaign Impact on Voters: 1976 Panel, Erie, Pennsylvania, and Los Angeles
 
Principal Investigator(s):Thomas E. Patterson
 
Bibliographic Citation:Patterson, Thomas E. PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN IMPACT ON VOTERS: 1976 PANEL, ERIE, PENNSYLVANIA, AND LOS ANGELES [Computer file]. ICPSR version. Syracuse, NY: Thomas E. Patterson, Syracuse University [producer], 197?. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2000. doi:10.3886/ICPSR07990
 

Scope of Study

Summary:This study's purpose was to assess the impact of a presidential election campaign, particularly the media campaign, on the electorate. In order to do so, a panel survey was administered in several waves to the same respondents over the course of the 1976 presidential campaign year. Two samples of randomly selected adults, one each from the metropolitan areas of Los Angeles, California, and Erie, Pennsylvania, were contacted for five personal interviews: in February, before the first primary was held, in April, during the early primaries, in June, during the late primaries, in August, during the conventions, and in October, before the general election. In addition, half the sample was interviewed by telephone after the first televised presidential debate and the other half interviewed after the second debate. Respondents were also interviewed by telephone after the election to determine whether they had voted and for whom. The surveys contained batteries of questions about each respondents's media use, such as exposure to national news, attention to this news, and interest in election coverage in particular. The surveys also provided measures of public orientations that might have been affected by the campaign, such as voting preferences, candidate images, candidate recognition, perceptions of the candidates' chances of victory, and issue salience. Other general information contained in the data collection concerns each respondent's party loyalties, interest in the election, ideology, and personal background.
 
Subject Term(s):Carter, Jimmy, decision making, Dole, Bob, election campaigns, Ford, Gerald, mass media, McCarthy, Eugene, media influence, Mondale, Walter, news media, political advertising, political affiliation, political ideology, political interest, political issues, political participation, presidential campaigns, presidential candidates, presidential debates, presidential elections, primaries, social influence, vice-presidential candidates, voter attitudes, voting behavior, California, Erie, Los Angeles, Pennsylvania, United States
 
Time Period:1976
 
Universe:English-speaking adult United States citizens.
 
Data Type:survey data
 
Data Collection Notes:The codebook is provided by ICPSR as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file. The PDF file format was developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF reader software, such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy of the Acrobat Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web site.
 

Methodology

Sample:Respondents were selected randomly, but with known probability, through the method of block-household-individual random selection. There were 1,002 respondents in the first interview (February), and an additional 234 respondents were added during the second and third interviews, bringing the total number of respondents to 1,236.
 
Data Source:personal and telephone interviews
 

Access and Availability

Note:A list of the data formats available for this study can be found in the summary of holdings. Detailed file-level information (such as record length, case count, and variable count) is listed in the file manifest.
 
Original ICPSR Release:1984-05-08
 
Dataset(s):
  • DS1: Presidential Campaign Impact on Voters: 1976 Panel, Erie, Pennsylvania, and Los Angeles
 

^ top of page