More People Seeking Political News Online

NewsMax ^ | 10/29/06 | AP

[wagglebee]

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.

While 35 percent say they go to the Internet for political updates about campaigns and candidates, that number grows to 43 percent of likely voters - and they tend to be more liberal than conservative.

With midterm elections less than two weeks away, the online audience is getting deluged with e-mail and election updates from the news, campaign and political Web sites.

Those who use the Web point to the convenience, the wide variety of information and the range of intense emotion available.

The poll found that four in 10 men search the Web for political news compared to three in 10 women. About four in 10 of those under age 50 search the Web for political news, compared with fewer than two in 10 of those 65 and over. And more than half of those with college degrees look to the Web for politics, compared with a third of those who have some college and fewer than one in six with a high school education or less.

The most popular destinations are the news sites, with nine of 10 in the online political audience saying they go to news sites. Just over a third go to candidate's sites and almost half check out political sites.

The number who go online has grown from about a fourth in this country six years ago, according to the Pew Research Center. Fewer than half of those who go online are regular users of the Web for political news.

While the online browsers go to a wide variety of sites, they overwhelmingly trust what they see on the news sites.

Seven in 10 said news sites are the most trustworthy, according to the poll of 2,000 adults taken Oct. 20-25. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, larger for subgroups.

[wagglebee]

Obviously the AP doesn't see the "bigger picture" and that is that people simply don't believe the mainstream media.

[fporretto]

Not only that, but that the Internet allows you to "customize" your window on the world to a degree that the print and broadcast media don't permit.

I hope the bit about "more liberal than conservative" is off base, though.

Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit Eternity Road:
http://www.eternityroad.info

[NaughtiusMaximus]

All AOL members? (Shameless, brainless liberal bias.)

[Mr. Brightside]

I can't remember the last time I went to the TV for political news.

I even hate the "Sunday Morning Talk Show Thread."

[fat city]

"I hope the bit about "more liberal than conservative" is off base, though."

It's true if you consider porn sites "political".

[ustanker]

you are right about liberal lap dog AOL......They delete my post when they get on their Gop bashing.....I keep letting them have it !

[Names Ash Housewares]

TV news blows. Period.

I can stomach very little of it. It is slow to give me the information, it is nearly always left wing bias, and getting news on the internet is far better for my blood pressure.

I think the trend to the net is a damn good thing for conservatism. I am convinced without it we would be talking Presdident Kerry right now. The internet is king. LONG LIVE THE KING.

[Jacquerie]

Since 1988 I have watched SEE BS evening news exactly three times. Once to watch Bush x41 abandon the Dan during an interview. For the second I saw the Dan say "Gary Condit". The third was to watch the Dan kinda, sorta explain his attempt to bring down a sitting President of the United States. As one Freeper tags, the fourth estate is a fifth column, unworthy of consideration by a free people.