Earlier this year the city of Mission Viejo retained the services of True North Research Inc. to conduct a follow up to their 2006 Satisfaction Survey of our residents on a wide list of topics.
“The most frequently cited source for city-related information in 2008–used by 39% of respondents–was the City Outlook newsletter, followed by the Internet in general (25%), city website (15%), Saddleback Valley News (14%), and the Orange County Register (14%).” Further down the page it reads that “Just 12% of adult residents indicated that they are readers of blogs that pertain to Mission Viejo.”
Note: Based on the above cited data, the respondents clearly are using the Internet more than the local newspapers for their information about our city.
Jumping ahead to question #41 (found on page 15 and page 75).
“Which specific blogs do you use to find out about Mission Viejo?”
The City’s Blog was first at 24% followed by a category called “other” (unique responses) at 18%. These are followed by the Mission Viejo Dispatch at 9%, Orange Juice Blog 8%, Mission Viejo Library Blog 7%, Mission Viejo Watchdog Blog 6% and coming in last was Red County Blog at zero percent.
Perhaps other Orange County cities have, or will conduct similar satisfaction surveys that include questions regarding how their residents get their city specific news.
Note: While the sampling was less than one percent of our population it does point out that bloggers are being used as a source for local information.
During his November 30th presentation at OC Forum, Terry Horne, president of the OC Register, stated that for newspapers to survive they must be “cheaper, better, and faster.” He told that audience that the Register in now engaged in a “web first policy.” I would opine that those of us who have been bloggers over the past few years have forced the Register to shift gears to recognize our paving the way in sharing news on the net.
Every city, county or state government, in every nook and cranny in America, had better recognize that we are everywhere with our laptops and web sites reporting the news. At the Americans for Prosperity conference I attended in Washington, DC we had an entire room set aside with laptops for bloggers rather than the traditional press room. There were almost 100 of us who were encouraged to blog our posts in real time directly from the hotel. While we still need our daily newspapers, blogs are the future of news transmission.
The web sites for the local Mission Viejo blogs referenced above are as follows:
Wasn’t this the bogus phone survey of 400 residents? When you hear “the rest of the story,” it becomes laughable. Isn’t it a fact that the person conducting the survey asked a question and then gave suggested answers from a contrived list?
Here’s my question: what kind of Mission Viejo resident would answer the phone in the first place? Is it credible that 400 people picked up the phone and then stayed on the line to have “answers” suggested for 20 minutes?
Did True North find 400 people who answered the phone and took the survey? I doubt it, but if so, my conclusion is that the 400 are not in any way typical. Either way, the survey was a fraud.