[I came late to this.] Influentials are more Republican and less Democratic than the general public, but less likely to be undecided.

The top concerns of the influentials are terrorism, foreign relations, but they are less interested in terrorism than the general public and more interested in foreign relations. Terrorism is trending up. The breakdown of the family is trending down. The only domestic issue trending up is health care.

Who are the online influentials? They did a a phone survey of 1,000 poeople and an online survey of 1,400 people. 7% of the phone surveyees counted as online political citizens (OPC) while 35% of those surveyed online were.

62% are male
59% have college degrees
42% have incomes over $75,000
36% are between 18-34
81% are white (compared to 86% in gen pop)
44% have never done any political work or contributed
49% are Democrats
29% are Republicans
46% have made a donation
24% have made a donation online

Compared to the general population, the OPCs are far more likely to have attended a meeting, written a politican, etc. The numbers franged from 2x to 8x.

Q: What’s the relative importance of the media?

Guy from Slate: The blog community is real important here, extending stories indefinitely.

Another guy: The influentials watch a little more TV than everyone else. They’re the biggest consumers of media. So, yeah, the media are important.

Categories: Uncategorized dw