WASHINGTON, April 15 (UPI) -- Web logs seem on their way to becoming part of the American electoral process with a new survey by Harris Interactive reporting that 44 percent of U.S. adults who use the Internet have visited a political blog.
The survey also revealed that 27 percent of Netsurfers read blogs at least once a month.
Though still relatively new, the phenomenon of blogging quickly became a fixture of the 2004 election campaign season, with large numbers of voters reading blogs displaying a wide range of political stripes and many Americans -- ranging from unknowns to notable pundits -- turning to the informal journalistic form to communicate news and their views of candidates for local, state and national office.
"One of the most striking findings from this survey is how many U.S. adults are reading political blogs," said Bill Dalbec, research director at Harris Interactive. "Apart from the fact that two in five adults have read political blogs, it is interesting to note that about one-quarter of U.S. adults read these postings at least once a month."
He added, "Many of these Web logs sprung from a sense of discontent with the current administration in Washington, D.C., so it's probably no surprise that political liberals are both more likely to read political blogs and also to post comments to them."
The survey also found despite the relatively high proportion of respondents reading political blogs, only about 15 percent have ever posted a comment, which translates into only 7 percent of all U.S. adults.
Blog readers tend to be more educated than other online users, Harris researchers found. Of online adults with a college or postgraduate degree, 52 percent are significantly more likely to have read a political blog than those who have attended just some college -- 46 percent -- or those with a high-school degree or less -- 33 percent.
The survey also uncovered a gender gap in reading political blogs -- men are more likely than women to read them -- with 48 percent of men online reading blogs compared to 40 percent of women.
Also according to Harris, political liberals are more likely to read political blogs than their conservative or moderate counterparts -- 52 percent to 48 percent and 46 percent, respectively.
Other poll results:
--Among online adults who have read a political blog, 53 percent said they spend less than 15 minutes in a typical reading session, but postgraduates, who are more likely to read political blogs, read the postings quickly, with 67 percent spending less than 15 minutes in a typical session.
--Liberals are significantly more likely to have posted a comment on a political blog than either conservatives or moderates, by a margin of 13 percent to 7 percent and 7 percent.
--Among online adults who have posted comments on a political blog site, the majority posted five or fewer times in the past year, with 50 percent posting two to five times and 20 percent posting only once.
--Liberals, at 28 percent, are significantly more likely than conservatives or moderates to post frequently, posting 10 or more times in the past year. Only 20 percent of conservatives and 17 percent of moderates were likely to do so.
Harris researchers surveyed 2,630 U.S. adult Netsurfers between March 8 and 14.
In a contest held by The Washington Post to select some of the best political and election blogs of 2004, some of the favorites included Instapundit, National Review's "The Corner," Talking Points Memo, Lileks, Wonkette and Daily Kos.
In a speech before the American Society of Newspaper Editors on Wednesday, media tycoon Rupert Murdoch warned editors against the growing interest in blogs among news readers. Murdoch said news consumers wanted "control over the media, instead of being controlled by it", citing the growth of blogging as a demonstration of this.
As an example of the political influence of blogging elsewhere in the world, another report this week noted how the Chinese government regards blogging as a threat. The Open Net Initiative reported blog filtering and censorship is on the increase in China. The study found that major Chinese blog providers would either block blog postings with politically sensitive keywords or edit the posts before sending them out.
Open Net -- an international collaboration among the University of Toronto, Harvard Law School and the University of Cambridge -- mentions the reported closings in March 2004 of three popular Chinese blog providers after politically sensitive blogs were posted through the services. They were later reopened but with increased filtering restrictions.
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