March 11, 2008
NO WONDER VOTERS DIDN'T KNOW THEY HATE JOHN MCCAIN AND HILLARY CLINTON (via The Other Brother):
Poll: Most Americans don't read political blogs (Ellen Wulfhorst, 3/10/08, Reuters)
Only 22 percent of people responding to the poll said they read blogs regularly, meaning several times a month or more, according to the survey conducted by Harris Interactive. [...]Despite the attention blogs can get, the poll said 56 percent of Americans say they never read blogs that discuss politics. Another 23 percent read them several times a year, the survey showed.
While blogs are largely considered the realm of young people who are most Internet-savvy, only 19 percent of people ages 18 to 31, and 17 percent of those ages 32 to 43, regularly read a political blog, the poll said.
The generation most likely to read such blogs are those age 63 or older, 26 percent of whom said they do so. Also, 23 percent of those ages 44 to 62 read them, the poll said.
Roughly an even number -- 22 percent of Republicans and 20 percent of Democrats -- regularly read blogs, while 26 percent of independents do the same, the poll showed.
Posted by Orrin Judd at March 11, 2008 6:28 AM
So blogs are just a running form of Grandma Spam? Don't tell me the oldsters can't manuever their way around the Internet.
Posted by: Brad S at March 11, 2008 9:22 AMThe few, the proud.
Posted by: Lou Gots at March 11, 2008 9:37 AM22% isn't "few". While blog readers certainly aren't representative of the voting populace (and commenters even more so) what' important about this number is that it's now totally impossible for the MSM to supress important news by just not mentioning it.
If something juicy comes along, even if half the political divide ignores it, the other side won't, and one in ten people will know about it. And then if it's intresting enough to become water-cooler talk, everybody hears it.
Posted by: Ralph Phelan at March 11, 2008 12:13 PMOJ,
I vaguely remember you posting something about how "only" 15 or 20% of conservatives cared about "Foleygate."
"Only?" Absent fat Hastert's incompetence re: Foley, the Rs would likely have kept congress.
"Only 22%"
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Advisor: Sen. McCain, we should do something to shore up our support among those who read the blogosphere.
McCain: Naaaahhhhh! That's only 22%
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If your point is that commenters and ranters are not a very large share of the vote, you are correct.
OTOH, to argue that blogs don't have an impact is vastly overstating the case.
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The future belongs to the people who understand where social networking and politics intersect.
Some here may laugh at Obama's strategy of training workers to avoid issues and talk about "conversions."
It may not work, but it is a very shrewd strategy that circumvents his weaknesses.
Posted by: Bruno at March 11, 2008 12:40 PM"Only 22 percent of people responding to the poll said they read blogs regularly, meaning several times a month or more"
So if you read a "blog" once a week, you're a "regular" reader. And I suspect that 90%+ of these people think "blogs" are short news articles on CNN.com or msnbc.com, since that's how the MSM sites operate nowadays.
I doubt I ever said that many Republicans ever had any idea who Foley was.
Posted by: oj at March 11, 2008 1:46 PM