dangerous thoughts

Ever wonder who in tarnation is actually reading the growing legion of political blogs (other than our family members)?

Here is some fascinating data on the subject, courtesy of my friend and fellow politico Donnie Fowler, culled from a blogads.com survey.

2006 Political Blog Readers May Not Be Who You Think They Are...

ALL POLITICAL BLOG READERS
Not Young: 62% are 40-years old and older (16% under 30, 11% over 60)
Heavily Male: 72% of political bloggers are male
Upper Middle Class: 40% earn $60,000-$120,000, only a third earn less than $60,000
Childless: 62% are in households with only one or two people
Highly Educated: 39% college degree, 39% post-graduate degree
White Collar: 25% are either in computer or education industry
Heavily Democratic: 49% Democratic, 20% Republican, 19% Independent
Like Being Active Without Getting Up: 75% wrote or called a politician, 76% signed a petition, 38% attended a rally, 36% attended a public meeting
Top Two Reasons for Blogging: to keep track of my thoughts (53%), to let off steam (50%)
Top Two Reasons for Reading Blogs: news I can't find elsewhere (84%), better perspective (80%)

YOUNG VOTERS
Less than 16% of all blog readers are under 30
Only 5.7% of blog readers call themselves "students"
80% of college students use the online social network Facebook
Sources of Political Information for Young Voters in 2006:

• Local TV & cable news 39%
• Internet 35%
• newspapers 30%
• other 19%
• text messages 3%

DEMOCRATIC POLITICAL BLOG READERS
Not Young: 60% are 40 years old and older, 17% under 30
Heavily Male: 66% of Democratic political bloggers are male
Upper Middle Class: 40% earn $60,000-$120,000, only a third earn less than $60,000
Childless: 64% are in households with only one or two people
Highly Educated: 39% college degree, 41% post-graduate degree
Like Being Active Without Getting Up: 80% wrote or called a politician, 83% signed a petition, 46% attended a rally, 37% attended a public meeting
Top Two Reasons for Blogging: to keep track of my thoughts (53%), to let off steam (51%)
Top Two Reasons for Reading Blogs: news can't find elsewhere (84%), better perspective (78%)

SOURCES & COMMENTARY
http://www.blogads.com/survey/blog_reader_surveys_overview.html [Blogads Survey]
http://www.blogads.com/survey/2006_political_blogs_reader_survey.html [Blogads Survey]
http://www.youngvoterstrategies.org [Young Voter Strategies of George Washington University]

Also, the Pew Internet & American Life Project just released another batch of informative findings about Internet usage and online political activity. Micah Sifry, the editor of the Personal Democracy Forum, highlights the major findings here. By far the most interesting discovery, according to Sifry:

23% of campaign internet users has either posted their own political commentary to the web via a blog, site or newsgroup (8%); forwarded or posted someone else's commentary (13%); created political audio or video (1%); forwarded someone else's audio or video (8%). "That translates into about 14 million people who were using the 'read-write Web' to contribute to political discussion and activity," the study's authors Lee Rainie and John Horrigan write.

This kind of penetration suggests that online politics is starting to break through the stereotype as a trekkie convention for C-Span junkies, and is poised to take off as a mainstream medium for communication and connection. But Sifry, who is one of the nation's leading experts on politics and technology, is not so sure.

. . . [T]his is just speculation, but this report suggests to me that the online political universe, and blogging in particular, may be reaching a plateau. While it's true that far more people went to the net for political news and participation in 2006 than in the previous midterm election cycle of 2002, that is both a reflection of the expansion of broadband penetration and of the fact that the prospect of political change made this election pretty engaging. What the survey doesn't show is a concomitant expansion in blog usage over 2004, if I'm not mistaken. So perhaps there are limits to the number of people who are attracted to political blogs? Or maybe the form needs some refreshing?

That last question, which I have been thinking about a lot since the end of the Lieberman campaign, is a subject for a much longer conversation, which I plan to return to soon.