Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The purpose of this study was to collect data about the first-time elector, whose attitudes towards, exposure to and response to the flow of campaign communications during the 1970 and the 1974 General Election were examined in the context of political outlook, role and social situation.

Main Topics:

Attitudinal/Behavioural Questions Interest in the election and political matters in general, respondent's reference group. Attitudes to party aims and policies and election issues were recorded in detail. Political knowledge, participation and party identification are assessed together with the respondent's sense of political efficacy. Impression of the personal qualities of the three main party leaders was given according to 7 fixed scales. Opinion on: the Common Market, lowering the voting age to 18, the citizen's duty to vote, and whether the different parties offered the electorate a real choice and faced the real issues in the election campaign. Exposure to the media: data were obtained on radio exposure and listening habits, television exposure and whether the respondent watched TV news, newspaper readership (number of papers read, time taken and reason for reading was given). Reasons for viewing/listening to - or avoiding - party broadcasts were obtained, as were the type of political programme respondent found most gratifying and his assessment of political interviewers (3 point scale). Background Variables Age, sex, marital status, education, occupation, household composition, father's occupation, party identification of parents and spouse. Whether respondent was registered to vote, his voting intention and his certainty about that voting choice.

Systematic random sample with clustering by wards

Face-to-face interview