Prospects and Problems of the Recent Developments in Social Survey in Korea: Mixed-Mode Surveys and Volunteer Web Panels

Mixed-mode (or multi-mode) surveys and (volunteer) web panels were recently introduced as ways to cope with changes in the social survey environment, which is going through a rapid and massive transformation. The direction, speed, and magnitude of these changes have been clear in Korea, too. Enumerated in Figure 1 are the social surveys between 1960 and 2010 archived by the Korean Social Science Data Archive (KOSSDA) 2. The left panel shows the exponential growth in the overall volume. The other two panels, more importantly, show the changes in the composition. Mixed-mode and online surveys are rapidly increasing their shares and are fast becoming de facto standards in Korea, as in many other countries.