Blogs Popular During 2004 Elections

Posted on November 5, 2004

Weblogs emerged as very popular sources for information during the 2004 election. A study by Intelliseek conducted during the 2004 elections found that web users frequently consulted blogs for ongoing information. Bloggers covering the 2004 political scene cited Matt Drudge's Drudge Report, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga's DailyKos and Glenn Reynolds' Instapundit blogs most frequently in their writings, but for traditional news sources, they rely on the New York Times, Washington Post and Yahoo! News.

Iraq has consistently ranked as the most-discussed issue in political blogs throughout the campaigns, and blog-related discussion has both spiked with key political events and preceded certain issues, waiting for mainstream media attention to catch up.

"Clearly, bloggers' influence on political discussion and the election is evident and growing," said Intelliseek CMO Pete Blackshaw. "The web-enabled public is relying on a variety of sources, including blogs, traditional media and other websites, to inform themselves, find unfiltered opinions, and to guide their votes. And bloggers, in some instances, are pushing the envelope in defining the political agenda and news coverage."

Some of Intelliseek's findings from political blog data since August and up until a week before the election:

Top Blogs: Matt Drudge's Drudge Report has been cited nearly 7,800 times in blogs, followed by DailyKos (7,700), Instapundit (6,900), Powerline (5,500), Atrios (5,500), and Talking Points Memo (5,500). Presidentially speaking, Sen. John Kerry's blog (1,616 links) ranked 22nd among the top 100 political blogs: President George Bush's blog (581 links) ranked 50th.

Top Media Sources: With nearly 45,000 citations, the web site of the New York Times leads all media sources, followed by the Washington Post (33,000), Yahoo! News (27,000), CNN (24,500), MSNBC (17,000), the National Review (12,400) and the BBC (10,500).

Top Websites: The top three non-news, non-blog links included in blog postings are those to Sen. John Kerry's campaign website (more than 10,000 citations), the White House website (6,500 citations) and President Bush's campaign website (5,500).

Top Campaign Issues: Iraq has consistently ranked as the top issue, capturing a range of 11%-30% of citations in political blog postings, followed by the economy (7%-13%), health care (2.5%-9.5%), environment (1%-3%) and education (1%-4%).

In some cases, bloggers' attention to certain issues kept them alive before or until mainstream media coverage caught up. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign emerged in blogs in late July and peaked in mainstream media coverage in August, while the bloggers' discrediting of Dan Rather's news source for his CBS "60 Minutes" coverage of Bush's National Guard service continued throughout the week after the segment aired in early September; Rather apologized later that month.

Intelliseek provides technology solutions that help marketers derive intelligence from numerous data sources, including internal CRM systems and the growing amount of consumer-generated media (CGM) found in online discussion forums, message boards, review sites and blogs. Intelliseek maintains headquarters in Cincinnati with offices in New York, California and Washington D.C., and an Applied Research Center in Pittsburgh.