True, the share of these "old media" has decreased sharply since 2000, but the decline appears to be leveling out. Morning news shows and National Public Radio are gaining ground as political information sources.
In our own back yard, The Swamp (a joint operation of the Washington bureaus of The Sun and other Tribune newspapers) is by far the most popular of Baltimoresun.com's 39 blogs.
But before you draw conclusions, consider some additional figures from Comscore, an Internet metrics firm. Web-wide, the company found that just 20 percent of blog visitors account for 84 percent of the time spent on blogs.
What this seems to show is that political bloggers talk mostly to political junkies and to one another. If they have external influence, it's because the rest of us buy into their hype about how important they are. Regular voters don't much care.
You can find the Jan. 11 Pew report at pewinternet.org and the Harris survey at harrisinteractive.com.
Department of Digital Transition: Readers burned up the wires with e-mail about last week's column urging folks with TVs that get their signals over the air to buy digital converter boxes now - rather than wait until broadcasters turn off their analog transmitters for good next Feb. 17.
To ease the pain, the government will give every household two coupons worth $40 each toward the cost of these converters (which themselves cost $40 to $60).
But a couple of readers warned me about a catch: There are two batches of coupons available, and they're not both available to all comers.
The first batch, available now, will go to every household with an analog set that receives TV signals over the air, even if other sets in the home have cable or satellite service. Congress has appropriated $990 million for this group.
Once they're gone, another $510 million is available for coupons, but only for those who have no cable or satellite service in their home - and thus depend entirely on over-the-air reception.
If you're in a mixed household (some cable TVs, some with antennas) get your coupons before the first batch runs out. And remember that you have to use the coupons within three months after they're issued. Visit www.dtv2009.gov or call 1-888-388-2009.
Many readers wondered whether their current antennas would work with the new converters. I think there will be significant reception problems in many areas, so it's worth a visit to www.antennaweb.org, a site operated by the National Association of Broadcasters.
Enter your address and ZIP code (ignore the request for your name and e-mail address), and you'll get a list of the stations in your area, the direction of the transmitter from your home, and the type of antenna you'll need for each station.
Obviously, you'll need a better antenna to pull in Washington stations than you will to get Baltimore broadcasters. Antenna boxes are color-coded, so this makes it relatively easy to buy one.
For a geekier look at your prospects for reception, visit tvfool.com and browse the online maps for a look at the digital signal strength of each TV station. This is a great map-and-data mash up, but you'll have even more fun with the site if you install Google Earth on your computer.
Stay tuned.
mike.himowitz@baltsun.com
