The Seven
"Nations" of Political Talk
Just a few weeks
prior to the 2008 elections, we conducted a nationally
representative survey of 2,164 American adults aged 18+.
This was a period of heightened political interest and
discussion, due to the historic campaigns of then Senators
Barack Obama and John McCain. Among many other questions,
we asked respondents how often they watch or listen to six
of the major political commentators in the media today:
Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity & Alan Colmes, Bill
O’Reilly, John Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Keith
Olberman.
What follows is an analysis of the size, political
leanings, demographic characteristics, values and attitudes
of each “nation” of political talk within the United
States. Please note that there is some overlap between
these different audiences, with some Americans who tune in
to more than one commentator. We have also compared the
characteristics of each audience to the much larger
proportion of the public (57%) who do not watch or listen
to any of these commentators.
While there are some predictable patterns, such as
conservative commentators attracting more conservative
audiences and liberal commentators attracting more liberal
audiences, it is also interesting to note that each
audience is more diverse than these simple stereotypes. As
just one example, some Democrats and liberals listen to
Rush Limbaugh, while some Republicans and conservatives
watch Keith Olberman. Likewise, while majorities of Sean
Hannity watchers have strongly conservative values, not all
do, just as not all John Stewart watchers have liberal
values.
Lots of fun and surprising results in here.
Enjoy.
How often do you watch or listen to the following shows?
("often"
and
"sometimes"
combined)
Using
U.S. Census estimates for the American population for
November, 2008 we can roughly approximate the size of each
audience. Note that the survey question asked: “How often
do you watch or listen to the following shows?” The
response categories were: “often”, “sometimes”, “hardly
ever”, and “never”. The estimates below are based on those
respondents that said they tuned in either “often” or
“sometimes.” Again, these are just approximations. It is
also important to note that these results come from the
period just before the 2008 election, when interest and
fervor were at their peak. It is certainly plausible that
audience sizes have decreased since
then.
Total U.S. Adult (18+) Population = 231,500,000
Rush
Limbaugh = 27,777,000
Sean Hannity & Alan Colmes = 32,406,000
Bill O’Reilly = 43,980,000
None = 131,939,000
John Stewart = 37,036,000
Stephen Colbert = 34,721,000
Keith Olberman = 27,777,000
POLITICAL
LEANINGS
Generally speaking, do you think of yourself as a...
In general,
do you think of yourself as…
Are you
registered to vote?
If the 2008
presidential election were being held today, who would you
vote for? (late
October, 2008)
AUDIENCE
DEMOGRAPHICS
VALUES
AND ATTITUDES
Please tell us how strongly you agree or disagree with each
statement below.
("somewhat
agree" and
"strongly
agree" combined)
METHODS
In
September and October of 2008, a nationally representative
survey of 2,164 American adults was conducted by
researchers at Yale and George Mason Universities.
Respondents completed two separate questionnaires, two
weeks apart, using the nationally representative online
panel of Knowledge Networks. The within-panel
completion rate was 54 percent. The margin of error for
each of the audiences ranges from +/- 1.4% to 3.1% from
the largest audience (None) to the smallest (Limbaugh
and Olberman).