I keep seeing and hearing frustrated exchanges about how unresponsive our government and media are to concerned individuals such as we in the progressive blogosphere.
For example:
When can we, as a nation (not just bloggers) call 'bull$h*te' on these war criminals "leading" us and say "Enough!"???
Posted by: NonnyO
How about this for an idea about "when" change will occur - when the bloggers figure out how to reach out beyond the blogosphere ghetto. I can tell you that in my blue-collar, economically declining, city, 85% of the people do not use the internet at all. Probably 80% to 90% do not read a newspaper daily. They get most of their information via television and radio. Many of these people now know that Bush is bad but they are not quite sure why, and they are not quite sure what to do about it.
Posted by: Ralpheh
The Pew Research Group provides some insight in this report entitled "Cable and Internet Loom Large in Fragmented Political News Universe." This table makes it quite clear that the internet, while growing in importance, has some stiff competition from corporate-controlled "mainstream media." They looked particularly at campaign-related news, but the same sources disseminate most of our news.
There has been a shift in how the public gets election (and presumably other) news. Television leads but broadcast television popularity has eroded. The internet, on the other hand, has grown in importance but is still overshadowed by television. Young people are increasingly seeking out alternative sources of information, such as comedy shows and the internet. Local news has suffered over time, as have newspapers and other print media, as far as market share.
Internet election news climbed from 9% in 2000 to 13% in 2004 for regular campaign news consumers, and from 15% to 20% for occasional ones. This does not measure those individuals who are politically unaware, do not vote or do not care.
For more trends and tables, hit the link. (Submitted in longer form to http://www.democracycellproject.net)
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