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§ 5 (1) 9b PS Political Communication and Electoral Analysis - Introductory Level

Students acquire the ability to demonstrate and explain the behaviour of voters, political parties and the media in democracies theory-driven and with empirical findings. They know how to explain the function of political communication and the logics of media-centred democracy.

Students work in groups to plan a survey in the context of an election that addresses a central concept in political communication or election research. Students will go through all stages of the scientific research process - from reviewing the central research literature, developing a research interest and question, selecting a method, collecting, preparing and analyzing data, and interpreting and discussing the results in a final research paper.
The aim of the proseminar is to be able to describe and explain the behavior of voters, political parties, and the media in democracies theory-driven and based on empirical findings. In addition, the students should be prepared in the best possible way for independent empirical research (e.g., in the course of the BA and MA thesis).

Interactive format; group work; review of key research literature; planning and conducting a quantitative survey; use of SPSS: data collection, data cleaning, data analysis and interpretation; writing an exposé and research paper.

Active participation, exposé, research paper

Holt, K., Figenschou, T. U., & Frischlich, L. (2019). Key Dimensions of Alternative News Media. Digital Journalism, 7(7), 860–869. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2019.1625715
Powner, L. C. (2015). Empirical Research and Writing: A Political Science Student’s Practical Guide. SAGE Publications.
Scholl, A. (2018). Die Befragung (4. Aufl.). UTB Verlag

successful completion of compulsory module 1