Finding Political News Online, the Young Pass It On, Brian Steltner, New York Times.
A December survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press looked broadly at how media were being consumed this campaign. In the most striking finding, half of respondents over the age of 50 and 39 percent of 30- to 49-year-olds reported watching local television news regularly for campaign news, while only 25 percent of people under 30 said they did.
Fully two-thirds of Web users under 30 say they use social networking sites, while fewer than 20 percent of older users do. MySpace and Facebook create a sense of connection to the candidates. Between the two sites, Mr. Obama has about one million “friends,” Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, his rival for the Democratic nomination, has roughly 330,000, and Senator John McCain, the presumed Republican nominee, has more than 140,000. Four out of 10 young people have watched candidate speeches, interviews, commercials or debates online, according to Pew, substantially more than people 30 and older.
Comcast to Stop Hampering File-Sharing, AP.
Comcast Corp., an Internet service provider under investigation for hampering online file-sharing by its subscribers, announced Thursday an about-face in its stance and said it will treat all types of Internet traffic equally.
Since user reports of interference with file-sharing traffic were confirmed by an Associated Press investigation in October, Comcast has been vigorously defending its practices, most recently at a hearing of the Federal Communications Commission in February.
Meghan McCain Has Offbeat Campaign Blog, AP.
On the night The New York Times published a story suggesting McCain had an extramarital affair with a lobbyist, John and Cindy McCain were silent. They waited until morning to hold a carefully coordinated news conference in which McCain emphatically denied the story, which offered no direct evidence of an affair.
But just after the story broke, Meghan posted a few thoughts that provided a glimpse into how her family must have been feeling. She did not mention the story but made an emotional defense of her father.
"Having grown up in politics, I know it's an industry that, for all intents and purposes, is known for being dirty and cruel," she wrote.
"Why do I choose to be involved in politics right now? Because my father is different," she wrote. "He's compassionate, full of life, hilarious and is a beacon of integrity to myself and to so many others. Politics is rough, but I absolutely adore my Dad and this campaign and have never, ever stopped believing in him."
Five Questions for Danny Glover of Eyeblast.tv, Robert Bluey, Bluey Blog.
This week I asked Danny Glover, executive producer of Eyeblast.tv, to answer some questions about the Media Research Center’s newest venture — a video sharing and social networking site. I came to know Danny through his work at National Journal’s Beltway Blogroll, where he covered the politics/technology scene in Washington.
Since leaving National Journal, Danny has had his hands full. In additional to launching Eyeblast, he’s writing an outstanding personal blog called Taxation With Representation that tracks every tax his family pays over a year’s time.
Study: Non-profits Missing Major Online Fundraising Opportunities, Josh Catone, ReadWriteWeb.
Convio, Edge, and Sea Change expect that the results of their research will change the way some charities approach online fundraising. Specifically, they found that more than half of those surveyed preferred giving online, and 80% said they did at least some of their donating via the Internet (and a good portion do it via credit card to get the frequent flier miles). That's imporant because even though the "wired wealthy" made up just about 1% of donors to the charities involved in the study, they accounted for approximately 32% of their annual gifts.
Unfortunately for charities, less than half of respondents thought charity web sites were generally well-designed, that charities did enough to connect with them online, or that they were inspired by charity sites. So how can organizations better connect with these important constituents? Email is one method. According to the study, 65% of the "wired wealthy" always open email sent from charities they support, and about 3/4ths of respondents said that email reminders about the renewal of an annual gift are "appropriate." But just 43% thought emails from charities were usually well-written or inspiring, indicating that thus far email has been a lost opportunity for many non-profit organizations. Further, a large majority of respondents said an email letting them know how their donation was spent would make they more likely to give again, as would controls on how often a charity was allowed to email them.
More than half of respondents also use YouTube, which points to online video as another pontential way to connnect with wealthy donors online.
