ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the use of panel survey designs in political communication research. It discusses the results of an informal content analysis of the use of panel studies in political communication in recent years, as well as makes reference to specific political communication panel studies in order to identify typical approaches in the field and potential areas for improvement. The chapter devotes particular attention to the strengths and weaknesses of the American National Election Study (ANES) panel design for political communication research because, for most political communication scholars, the ability to fund, design, and gather their own panel data may be rare. It focuses on the traditional pre-post election panel study, which takes a similar form each presidential election year. Researchers using panel study designs as quasi-experiments must carefully integrate individual-level panel survey data with data addressing the presence of relevant information in the environment, which serves as the stimulus in the quasi-experiment.
