Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Who reads political blogsites?
Political blogsites are proliferating; even candidates running for local level offices have them these days!
But an open research question is who reads political blogsites.
There is an interesting study from Joseph Graf, published by the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet, "The Audience for Political Blogs: New Research on Blog Readership" on this question.
The study used a list of registered voters with matched email addresses in California (apparently about 2.3 million registered voters in the state), who were emailed, and asked to participate in their study of political blogsite readers. They were able to get 7,863 respondents, many of whom reported reading blogs. Here is a quote from the report's executive summary regarding their key results:
It's an interesting attempt to study the use of political blogsites. As the report acknowledges, it is very difficult to study the readers and producers of political blogs, because they are still relatively few active writers and readers of political blogs. I wasn't able to find exact details as to what the contact email looked like, nor was I able to find the exact questionnaire (if I do find this info, I'll post it here); I wonder whether or not the contact email or questionnaire was worded in a way that might attract users of political blogs, or even politically active individuals, because the basic data on political activitiy reported here does seem a bit skewed.
Methodological questions aside, this is an interesting report, and an interesting study ... we'll certainly be seeing political campaigns increase their use of tools like blogsites in the next cycle.
But an open research question is who reads political blogsites.
There is an interesting study from Joseph Graf, published by the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet, "The Audience for Political Blogs: New Research on Blog Readership" on this question.
The study used a list of registered voters with matched email addresses in California (apparently about 2.3 million registered voters in the state), who were emailed, and asked to participate in their study of political blogsite readers. They were able to get 7,863 respondents, many of whom reported reading blogs. Here is a quote from the report's executive summary regarding their key results:
• While many Internet users have seen blogs, a much smaller proportion of them are regular readers of political blogs. Of the sample gathered here, 9% said they look at a political blog “almost every day.”
• Daily readers of political blogs see blogs as a news source and an alternative to the mainstream media, which they despise. Daily blog readers get almost all of their news online.
• The audience for political blogs appears to be fairly concentrated across dozens of blogs, not thousands. Daily readers visit the most popular blogs.
• Daily readers are disproportionately men, are not younger than other Internet users, but claim greater household income than other Internet users.
• Daily readers are more likely to place themselves at the ends of the political spectrum. They are also more likely to take strong positions on social issues, especially those who consider themselves Democrats.
• Daily readers are heavily involved in politics, and they respond to efforts by bloggers to participate. Daily readers forward news stories, sign petitions and e-mail politicians at the prompting of political blogs.
• Daily readers think that blogs encourage and improve political discussion.
It's an interesting attempt to study the use of political blogsites. As the report acknowledges, it is very difficult to study the readers and producers of political blogs, because they are still relatively few active writers and readers of political blogs. I wasn't able to find exact details as to what the contact email looked like, nor was I able to find the exact questionnaire (if I do find this info, I'll post it here); I wonder whether or not the contact email or questionnaire was worded in a way that might attract users of political blogs, or even politically active individuals, because the basic data on political activitiy reported here does seem a bit skewed.
Methodological questions aside, this is an interesting report, and an interesting study ... we'll certainly be seeing political campaigns increase their use of tools like blogsites in the next cycle.
// posted by Michael Alvarez @ 9:42 AM 
