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Red state/Blue state entertainment tastes - and Purples?
There’s an interesting survey conducted by polling firm Zogby International and the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School that looks at people’s political beliefs and their entertainment choices.
The survey of almost 4, 000 adults looked at those who considered themselves conservatives (reds), liberals (blues) or moderates (purples) - what TV shows and movies they watched, what books they read, their favorite sports, etc.
Lots of intriguing points to cherry pick, such as one reason that Rush Limbaugh has such a large national audience is due to liberals who listen to his show even though they disagree with his stands; the survey found that conservatives, on the other hand, would not listen to a liberal radio personality.
According to the survey:
Reds - Don’t watch much TV (Fox and Fox News being exceptions); don’t go to many movies; like sports (particularly football and auto racing); prefer classical, country and gospel music; and don’t play many videogames, though “Madden NFL” and “Mario” are favorites.
Blues - Watch more TV of various types (though not much reality TV or gameshows); see more movies and live theater; read more books, preferring fiction; play more videogames (“Mario” and “The Sims” are favorites); listen to all sorts of music; and are OK with sports, particularly football and soccer.
Purples - Watch more prime time TV (Fox News and police procedurals like “Law & Order” and “CSI: Miami”); read more books (non-fiction over other genres); listen to rock music; don’t look for politically themed entertainment; and their favorite videogames are “Mario,” “Madden NFL” and “Donkey Kong.”
I came out polka-dotted: I watch history, science and old movies on television; read a lot of non-fiction books; listen to a lot of different types of music (though not much on the rock and country charts); go to theater and movies; like college football, baseball and soccer; and am bogged down in the middle levels of many old videogames.
I suspect many of those polled were as all over the place as I was on entertainment choices - it’s a sign of our times - so I’m not sure what to do with the survey’s findings. Maybe take them with a couple of grains of salt, then put new batteries in the TV remote …
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Movies, Music, TV/Radio, Videogames, books
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By j.b. smith
November 13, 2007 5:39 PM | Link to this
I can hear it now from Sean, Glenn and Rush: “Those latte-drinking, football-watching, moviegoing, bookreading, rock-music loving, America-hating LIBERAL ELITES!” Could it be that the real story is that the categories of red and blue (and purple) don’t really define us all that well? Also, conservatives love country AND classical? That means some must be listening to…gasp…public radio!