The trends in where people are going for political news and analysis are readily apparent. It is important to note that "Internet," in the image, includes corporate media's online presence. ("Corporate media" means, for example, most broadcast and cable news, and daily newspapers; you know it when you see it.)
The above is based on this and other studies.
The numbers portray a diverse landscape in which no platform dominates as the place for politics, and the vast majority of Americans say they regularly rely on multiple platforms to get political information. Just 6% said they turn regularly to just one platform.It's no secret that the performance of corporate media "analysts" for the election cycle that just ended was entirely wretched. "Dead heat"..."Mitt-mentum"..."center-right nation"...whether they were deliberately dissembling in order to appeal to as wide an audience as possible, or are just plain incompetent, the result was the same. Corporate media is useless, and deserves to go under unless it changes its ways.
Are remarks like those in the preceding paragraph making a difference? I don't flatter myself so. But they're obviously not hurting, and they're fun to type.
To be clear, these numbers are nothing to get too excited about. More than half of the increase in politically-oriented internet use is to corporate websites, not - alas! - to the likes of MN Progressive Project. As with so much else, real change is a long, hard, often frustrating trek.