Web Demographics

• There were 20 million new broadband users in 2004 since 2000. (Media Post)
  
  
• 18 percent of Americans say they prefer media sources that challenge their point of view. Burst's study had similar findings, noting 56.6 percent of likely voters visited the site of an advocacy group or a candidate they don't support. (Pew Internet & American Life Project)
  
  
• A greater proportion of visitors to Senator John Kerry's Web site, JohnKerry.com, than that of President George W. Bush, Georgewbush.com, had household incomes at the extremes--both $150,000 and over, and less than $30,000--in the four weeks ending Oct. 23, according to a survey of 2.5 million Internet users. Bush's site had a greater proportion of visitors from households with incomes between $30,000 and $149,000. (Hitwise)
  
  
• About 9 percent of visitors to JohnKerry.com had household incomes of at least $150,000, while only 6.8 percent of visitors to Georgewbush.com had such incomes. At the same time, more than 20 percent of visitors to JohnKerry.com had incomes of $30,000 or less, while around 17 percent of visitors to Georgewbush.com fell into that category. (Hitwise)
  
  
• A greater proportion of Kerry visitors were at least 55 years of age, or between 18 and 34 years of age. Bush had more visitors in the 35-to-54 age range. Women also made up a larger percentage of Kerry visitors (56.4 percent) than Bush visitors (51.9 percent). (Hitwise)
  
  
• In a survey of Europeans, over which contender, John Kerry or George W. Bush, is more popular on the Internet: The French and the British were more than twice as likely to look for online content about Bush than Kerry. In Germany, the results were even more skewed in Bush's favor, 95 percent to 5 percent. (Initiative)
  
  
• Only 35 percent of voters 18-24 visited a candidate's site, compared to over half of those over 35. (Burst!)
  
  
• 31 percent of US broadband users turn to the Internet as their main source of campaign news. Newspapers led by a slim 35 percent margin. Numbers for dialup users are a bit wider, with 16 percent citing the Internet as their main source, as opposed to newspapers at 39 percent. Both dialup and broadband users overwhelming cite TV as their primary sources of campaign news (72 percent). (Pew Internet & American Life Project)
  
  
• The number of online Americans who have gone online to get campaign information doubled since the 2000 presidential campaign, and is now over 40 percent. The sites online Americans visit for campaign information are somewhat varied. Most Internet users (59 percent) get their online news from established organizations like CNN (broadband users, 72 percent; dialup, 51 percent). International news services are less popular, coming in at 18 percent of all Internet users. Alternative, more partisan news sites are visited by 16 percent of users. Drawn across party lines, 29 percent of Bush backers have visited a non-mainstream media site, compared to 36 percent of Kerry supporters. (Pew Internet & American Life Project)
  
  
• The overwhelmingly most popular source for political news and information among than broadband and dial-up users are Web sites of major news organizations - over 70% of broadband users and over 50% of dial-up users say they use these sites. Other types of sites fall far behind, including international news sites (24% of broadband users, 14% of dial-up users) and alternative news sites not directly tied to a major news organizations (16% of broadband users, 7% of dial-up users). Partisan Web sites tied to a candidate or party, and ideological Web sites with a left- or right-leaning view, all come in much lower than major news Web sites, but quite close to international and alternative news source Web sites. (Pew Internet & American Life Project)
  
  
• In January 2003, 15% of US online Adults said they rely on the Net for this information "a lot," while 31% said they relied on it "some," 29% said "not much" and 25% "not at all." By September, these numbers had shifted slightly towards more reliance on the Net, with 18% using it "a lot," 34% "some" and 19% using it "not at all." (Harris Interactive)
  
  
• US adults find newspapers, local TV news and cable network news to be the most credible forms of media, but Internet news sites are not too far behind. In fact, 21.3% of respondents in a survey say online news sites are credible, lower than the nearly 30% rating for newspapers and local TV news, but a bit higher than TV network news (19.5%), and significantly higher than news magazines (15.5%), news radio (13.3%) and talk radio (12.7%). Only 3.6% of respondents find Web logs ("blogs") to be trustworthy, making them the least credible news source among those polled. (InsightExpress)
  
  
• A survey of mobile phone users in the US in October 2004 asked who they would call if they could make a 15-minute call to anyone (respondents had to pick from a list drawn up by Harris). While God was the choice of 60% of respondents, George W. Bush came in second place, with 11%, while Kerry was in sixth place with only 4% of respondents. Of course, it's not clear whether people wish to call these candidates to praise, criticize or merely converse with them, and Bush's higher ranking shouldn't be seen as an endorsement! (Harris Interactive)