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A letter to Ballotpedia readers
Dear Ballotpedia readers:
When I read this study in the Columbia Journalism Review earlier this year, I realized that there is something special about people who read Ballotpedia.
Researchers looked at 1.25 million stories about the 2016 presidential election, and how those stories were shared online. What they found is that when it comes to consuming and sharing information about politics, most people have a strong tendency to stick to their own side of the partisan aisle.
In the six weeks leading up to last year’s November election, over 20 million people came to Ballotpedia to read up on the various candidates and ballot measures they’d be voting on, up and down their ballot. That’s about 15% of the number of votes cast in the presidential election.
What motivated our readers to come here to seek out information? Ballotpedia can be a bit on the dry side. It’s encyclopedic. It’s laden with facts. It is not part of a partisan bubble.
I’m sure that people who read Ballotpedia also read the websites and blogs on their own side of the aisle, whichever side that is. But many people -- at least according to the study published in the Columbia Journalism Review -- don’t do more than that.
But our readers did do more than that. Since you’re one of those readers...what is it about you that drives you to take that extra step and do that extra work? I’d love to know. We’re conducting a small study to dig into that. We’re looking for several dozen readers to interview. Each interview would take about an hour. If you are interested, please follow this link, and let us know when we can schedule a chat.
Thank you,
Leslie Graves
