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March 13, 2007
demographics of the blogosphere
These are interesting results from a representative national survey.
Blog readers skew young, which isn't a surprise. (And despite the higher rate of reading among youth, probably most readers are over 30.) The male majority among visitors to political blogs is striking and not self-evident. Women are politically engaged, representing 51% of voters in 2006, according to exit polls. But men aren't only drawn to blogs; they also read newspapers more (44% of men versus 38% of women were regular readers in 2006).
The left and right seem to be about equally drawn to the blogosphere. But that doesn't mean that liberals and conservatives are equally prevalent as blog-readers. Self-described liberals are significantly outnumbered in the national population, never surpassing 20% of American adults. That means that even if the same proportions of liberals and conservatives read blogs, there are more conservative eyeballs trained on the blogosphere. Moderates seem relatively uninterested in blogs--maybe because blogs tend to be strongly ideological, or maybe because some self-described "moderates" simply lack interest in politics.
Finally, well educated and privileged people are the most likely to participate.
March 13, 2007 11:05 AM | category: Internet and public issues | Comments