The Swiss Survey Panel on Digitalization
Project duration:
2021-2025
Project Consortium:
Abraham Bernstein (UZH)
Eszter Hargittai (UZH)
Lucas Leemann (UZH)
Karsten Donnay (UZH)
Website:
https://www.digivox.uzh.ch
Project Description:
The project is supported by infrastructure funding of the Digitalisierungsinitiative der Zürcher Hochschulen (DIZH), the UZH Digital Society Initiative (DSI), and the University of Zurich. The project establishes a new national survey panel specifically dedicated to the study of the social, economic, cultural, political and policy implications of digital media and their interplay with technological developments in Switzerland.
The impact of digitalization on politics, the media environment, and democratic processes in Switzerland is potentially far reaching, yet remains poorly understood. Media usage has moved online, political debates are being shaped by online campaigns, and the perception of the importance of data protection has shifted massively, changing people’s attitudes about what services the government or private service providers should offer as evidenced by the recent eID referendum.
Studying these kinds of questions systematically requires surveys that specifically track population attitudes and behaviors related to digitalization and its consequences. DigiVox addresses this gap by establishing a new Swiss national survey panel on digitalization. In addition to a recurring set of questions that we ask on each survey, through a competitive process, scholars have the opportunity to buy space on the instrument to ask their own questions.