Thoughts on the blogosphere

As I was picking through the political blogs I find interesting (all crazy Nazi Communist liberal ones, of course), I began to ponder an age old issue in the relationship between what issues are being discussed and which are important to voters. Does the media influence what is important to the voter, or what is important to the voter influence the media?

I think it depends. I know there has been some statistical work done on what issues matter to voters (this is pivotal).  However, where do these voters decide to pull their information on these issues from? Arguably the importance of the issue to the voter influences them to search for information on it through media outlets, but who influences whom?

A great example of this is my father. He sends me very conservative (sometimes offensive) chain e-mails about the doom of the Obama Administration each day attempting to sway my vote a bit.  However, he also watched Fox News religiously and reads some political blogs that lean Right. There are also some issues he is heavily influenced by when deciding who to vote for, naturally.  He is a military man born and raised in the South by farmers, and he loves his boat, truck, and gun.  I love those things too, by the way (Read: Jill-is-a-hippie theorists). To humor him and to also show my respect for his involvement politically, I try and read some of the e-mails, blog posts, and stories from Fox News he sends me. The issues that are most important to him are also most discussed in these news sources he subscribes to. Supply and Demand theory, in my opinion, cannot solely explain the information being provided in the media.

Here are a couple stories and blogs that discuss issues voters care about. Any ideas about this, friends?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mitt-romney-the-front-runner-who-leaves-the-gop-cold/2012/02/06/gIQAn0L5uQ_story.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/07/us/politics/for-mormon-voters-mitt-romneys-faith-a-factor-but-not-the-only-one.html?_r=1&ref=politics

http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2012/01/poll-illegal-immigration-plummets-as-a-national-political-issue/