The study was conducted by Jay G. Blumler, Denis McQuail, and T. J. Nossiter for the Social Science Research Council at the University of Essex [Survey Archive].
The data was collected through oral interviews using systematic random sampling with clustering by wards. The main sample was made of registered first-time electors, aged 18-24, and a control sample of adult electors aged 25 and older, residing in the 6 parliamentary constituencies in the city of Leeds.
Data were collected on interest in politics, especially the election, attitudes to party aims and policies and policies, political knowledge, political participation and identification. Pre-election files contain data on R's impression of the personal qualities of the three main party leaders; post-election files contain data on R's final perceptions of the political parties and attitudes towards the presentation of information during the campaign, and the issues that may face the new government.
R's opinion was sought a number of topics, including the Common Market, lowering the voting age to 18, citizen's duty to vote, immigration, representation of issues in the campaign, the choice offered the electorate by the parties involved. Data was also collected on R's exposure to mass media, including radio, televisions, and newspapers.
Demographic data: age, sex, education, occupation, marital status, household composition, father's occupation, party identification of parents and spouse, whether R is registered to vote, whether R intends to vote, class identification, type of home tenure.
The codebook for this dataset is available through the UBC Library catalogue, with call number LA637.7 .B485 1970.
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