43 Percent of Likely Voters Use Internet for Political News
That's according to an Associated Press-AOL News poll:
WASHINGTON - Increasing numbers of people looking for political news are going online — with more than a third now saying they check the Internet for such information.That group is more likely to be younger, better educated and male than the population in general, an Associated Press-AOL News poll found.
Hey, that's me! Well, except for the younger part. Sigh.
I found this part interesting considering that both the left and right blogosphere spend a considerable amount of time and energy poking well-deserved holes in mainstream news coverage:
While the online browsers go to a wide variety of sites, they overwhelmingly trust what they see on the news sites.
That's 70% who trust news sites, according to the poll. Of course, they don't specify what defines "political web sites" that the news sites are compared with. I think it's a given that blogs are included, but there are other political web sites as well.
Still, I see this as a plus for the blogosphere. Although some days it doesn't seem that way, the news sites by and large are doing a better job than they were a few years ago because they know how much more closely they're being watched. Eo ipso, the blogs are having a larger effect than the surface numbers suggest.
That's a good thing, folks.
It also underlines the need for bloggers to continue watching and correcting. Even with their frequent errors and proclivity toward bias, the MSM will always score high on this type of poll. No group of bloggers is likely to replace AP or Reuters anytime soon.
For the vast majority of political bloggers, that translates into a hobby with job security. What color lining this gives your clouds is up to you.
