Of all the conversations in which I was involved in Yearly Kos, it struck me how frequently I ended up in discussions centering on the demographics and diversity of the progressive, political blogosphere. On Open Left, Jenifer has raised many of these discussions in a series of posts over the last week, which you can read here, here and here. I would like to continue these discussions, and so, in the extended entry, here are some thoughts on the many different ways in which I saw this issue raised:
Online Support for Hillary Clinton. During the Yearly Kos polling panel, there was the inevitable question about why Clinton only polls at around 9-10% in most online activist polls, while she polls closer to 40% nationwide. I have seen this question arise in many forums, so I would like to address it again. The key reason behind this difference is, I believe, demographic. Every single Democratic and Democratic-leaning group among whom Clinton polls at a lower rate than her national average is over-represented in the progressive, political blogosphere: seculars, men, self-identified liberals, those with college degrees, younger voters, high-income voters, and white voters. Given this, it is simply inevitable-and far less mysterious-as to why she polls lower online than she does nationally. I do not think it is the only reason she polls lower online, but it is certainly one of the two or three main reasons.
Stagnating Progressive Blogosphere Traffic. This was a question I have raised on numerous occasions, including during my very first post on Open Left and at the Yearly Kos Blog Theory panel. In the end, after a lot of thought, I believe the reason progressive blogosphere traffic is stagnating is because we have reached a saturation point within the demographic groups who make up the majority of our audience. Among the demographics constituencies who make up the core of blog readership, there just are not many more highly politically engaged progressives for us to reach. As such. if progressive blogosphere traffic is going to increase, it can probably only come from reaching larger percentages of the progressive and politically active among groups who are currently under-represented in our audience: women, lower-income activists, older activists, non-white activists, etc. It is in this way that issues surrounding diversity in the blogosphere are directly connected to issues surround the continued growth and traffic levels of the progressive blogosphere.
Reaching New Groups. In discussions outside of specific panels at Yearly Kos, we discussed how one major factor in the current demographic make-up of the blogosphere is the location from where people read progressive blogs. Specifically, most people read from work. In order to read blogs from work, one needs regular broadband access at work. Those who have regular broadband access at work tend to work in fields like academia, technology, and other white-collar industries. As such, in addition to having now voices within the progressive blogosphere, attracting a more diverse audience will possibly require presenting some of our key content at different times of the day to better reflect when some people have broadband access. Anecdotally speaking, later in the evening and at night in the progressive blogosphere, open threads tend to be more common, and that content simply is not as engaging as much of what is written earlier in the day. As such, an effort to produce better content later in the day that tailors to people who can't read blogs at work might be quite beneficial. This is just one idea though, and many more can be found in Jenifer's diary on the Yearly Kos diversity panel.
Finally, I want to retract an observation what I have stated in the recent past about the progressive blogosphere, that "our readership is disproportionately drawn from some demographics that are often considered predominately Republican: male, white, high-income, non-union members." Upon further reflection, it simply is not the case that progressive blog readers come from traditionally, or even current, pro-Republican demographic groups. While it is true that the progressive blogosphere is disproportionately white, male and high-income, digging a little further into the demographics shows that it is actually very "non-white and / or non-Christian," with a heavy emphasis on the non-Christian side of that formulation. According to a February 2007 survey of MyDD, and to demographic Tuesday polls on Dailykos, the GLBT community represent a large, 14-18% of the readership of those blogs, while "non-Christians," make up an eye-popping 70-75% of the two communities. As such, at least when it comes to Dailykos and MyDD, the demographics of the readership are anything but typically Republican. White non-Christians and the GLBT community alike both vote at around 70-75% Democratic these days, making them core Democratic constituencies. Highly political engaged white non-Christians and members of the GLBT community form the demographic core of the progressive blogosphere, and also represent about 17% of the national electorate.
As I discussed in Jenifer's most recent diary, I think the last point is particular useful because it shows that the progressive blogosphere is actually quite representative of a large segment of the Democratic and progressive base. I have often talked about the progressive and Democratic coalition as a "non-white and / or non-Christian coalition" (see a recent Open Left post, Toward A Pluralism Strategy for more on this) and I think one of the fundamental issues we are hitting at in these discussions is how the "non-Christian" and "non-white" parts can better work together. Unfortunately, I don't think the current discussions between those two major constituencies--both of which are extremely internally diverse--within the Democratic Party and progressive ecosystem is particularly open and healthy right now. Hopefully, however, if both "groups" can understand that, when taken together, they form the growing, majority core of both the current and future governing majority in this country, that can serve as an important starting point to help improve the dialogue. It is certainly a dialogue I would like to see continued here at Open Left.
As an anti-spam measure, there is a 24-hour waiting period after registering before new users can comment. blog advertising is good for you
blog advertising is good for you
