Thursday, April 05, 2007

MSM: Do Your Homework

It is quite frustrating to listen to supposed knowledgeable journalists expose complete ignorance when it comes to the online community. The assumption, people who blog are "kids", the implication, don't take it seriously.

Let's look at the largest political blog on the internet, Daily Kos. In an effort to destroy the myths about the internet, the following demographic profile was conducted and the results are as follows:


Demographic Profile of Visitors to DailyKos.com
Percent Composition of Unique Visitors & Composition Index

May 2006

Persons - Age

Persons: 18-34 20.7
Persons: 35-44 17.5
Persons: 45-54 27.7
Persons: 55-64 12.2
Persons: 65+ 21.9

Household Income

Under $25K 2.8
$25,000 - 39,999 9.4
$40,000 - 59,999 20.4
$60,000 - 74,999 7.9
$75K plus 59.4

I can't see any reason why the Canadian results would be much different. Conclusion, do your homework traditional media, especially when you care to comment. Now if we can just get Scott Tribe out of his pyjamas ;)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are they assuming that bloggers are kids or bloggers who make the videos are kids? My partner was looking at the program the other day for kicks and I think he may have a go at it....he's umm.... definitely over 40. Good catch Steve.

Karen said...

Fife, would be one of the old farts I referred to in the last post, and that is what the book I referred to addresses. It has nothing to do with age per se, but mindset.

Fife, Duffy and many more, are well connected, but out of touch.

ottlib said...

The MSM has lost touch with its audience.

That is one reason why newspaper chains have to resort to those damn mini-papers like Metro etc.

As well, that is the reason why most news reports now resemble episodes of 'Cops' instead of shows to impart information to people.

If Walter Cronkite (sp?) was reading the news these days he would not last a month.

Of course, the MSM cannot take all of the blame. The people they are peddling their wares are also to blame. Most North Americans have no interest in news anymore, they want to be entertained. So the MSM is just meeting the demand.

However, for those of us that want to look beyond the headlines and the glib MSM take on the issues of the day the only place we can go is the internet and all of the amateur commentators found on blogs.

There are quite a few bloggers of all political stripes who I believe advance my understanding of the issues of the day much more effectively than Bob Fife would ever be able to.

Oxford County Liberals said...

I can tell you its very comfortable blogging in Pyjamas.
;)

Anonymous said...

I wonder if Bob Fife ever reads the blogs?

Does he feel threatened by them? Do they show the failure of the MSM to bring truth and real issues to the people?

Mike Duffy, Fife, Oliver, etc. spend more time with behind the scenes wink, wink, nudge, nudge stuff (especially about Liberals) than dealing with "real" issues.

Is Harper controlling Duffy, Fife, et al? Seems so. There're so afraid of being left out (invitations to Harper cocktail parties, etc.) they bow to him.

This isn't journalism - it's the old plastic rubbing elbows with the so-called important people.

I think people should write in and write in often letting them know how they feel about obvious bias and weak reporting.