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Results of the infonews.co.nz member survey

Sunday 18 December 2011, 4:29PM

By Fraser Mills

1543 views

The infonews.co.nz survey was sent out to our 3,500 members at the end of November 2011. Here is a summary of the 125 responses we received.

Demographics
68% of the respondents visit the site occasionally or frequently. 51% were male. Age was fairly evenly spread with 98% between the ages of 19 and 70. Common occupations were public relations (10), communications (10) and marketing (6). Other business related and professional occupations were also common. A sample of other occupations included air freight operator, bum, ESOL teacher, food technologist, gimp, homemaker, investment analyst, musician, nurse, physician, pimp, researcher, trader and youth worker.

Advertising
People seemed largely indifferent about viewing advertising on the website (65%), while 21% prefer the website without it. Just 7% preferred the site with advertising.

Content
The most important content proved to be national and local news coverage, 40% and 38% respectively saying it was very important. Business news was next most popular followed by international news. Sport and entertainment categories proved to be the least popular. Photos were rated three or greater by 70% and event listings were rated three or greater by 68%.

Services
The most requested free services were a weekly (46%) or daily (40%) email summary. Equally popular was for giveaways or competitions at 46%, possibly over represented due to the three book vouchers we were offering as prizes for completing the survey. Interest for a "database of public submissions to have your say" was another popular request on 35%. Only 19% opted for daily deals or specials. For services people were willing to pay for, 30% requested original research reports, while 24% showed interest in an event entries service. 'Advertising or Sponsorship' and Promotion were third equal on 21%. 18% indicated an interest in more detailed visitor analytics data.

Occupy Wall Street
51% of respondents gave a five or more (out of 10) in support of the protests. 25% did not support the Occupy Wall Street protests at all. 11% did not answer the question. Respondents were also asked to explain the main issue or reason for their level of support. A sample of responses with their corresponding level of support is as follows (10 = Totally support; 1 = Do not supprt):

10 The right to freedom of expression
10 because it is the very first time ever - and i have been watching for 25 years now - that the masses are getting it - its showing up the corporate greed but also its showing up political corruption the whole unsustainability of it and as it does so it shows the bars of the prison - the illusionary freedoms so many seem to think they have - i love it because love has become the new 4 letter word and there are no leaders

i am excited that the more the state shows its true colours the more people will see through there trance and stop supporting it and deludingly thinking it will change - it will not ...it can only collapse and in that i am excited to see that OCCUPY has the seeds for another way ...its time
10 Because it's about time they were listened to!
10 In the same way one of the principles of a healthy democracy (an ongoing process, not a fixed state) is the separation of church and state, there also needs to be a separation of money-power and state. Corporations and financial institutions have out-grown the democratic institutions our forefathers created more than a hundred years ago. New forms of governance and new legislation are required to check the undue influence of the corporate sector on the state. If this doesn't happen it will create greater and greater socio-economic inequality and this will create instability in the form of civil unrest which many corporate elite and their political acolytes will seek to deal with by gaining greater police powers. This dynamic is the inherent difficulty with unfettered capitalism.
10 The power that corporations (and the banking sector) around the world have over government, and in general, serve a tiny minority at the expense of the majority; the resultant inequality in the world is frightening.
9 Too many greedy people not doing 'good' with their income - spread it around and make the world a better place
8 Like what they are doing in the US, though there seems to be a lack of clear objectives.
8 They are fighting for a more equal society - I agree with this.
7 Freedom of speech
7 Some one is standing up and saying enough is enough!
6 The key point that there is inequity in the financial system between financial institutions and the people that are in them and middle to lower class or working class people. Also that financial markets appear or are likely to have a proportionally greater political influence (for the number of people involved in the industry) than the people not involved in the industry. I think that there is also a strong feeling of injustice as the victims of the collapse of financial institution are working and middle classes while the people inside the institutions (particular the workers) appear to retain large incomes.
5 Corporate greed
5 Someone has to make stand, the world has forgotton so much, we have fought wars to keep our freedom and our financiall security. We all should be working for the benefit of society and shame on those who take more than they need and give nothing back to their communities.
3 you can't ignore / diminish capitalism
3 I can understand how people feel about the way the world is going
2 I think their arguments are financially and morally flawed.
2 waste of time
2 There solutions that they are proposing are missing the point.
1 No overall strategy or message, no well communicated outcomes or objectives. They say they are against consumerism (well, some of them do), yet are costing ratepayers thousands of dollars every week through their occupation.
1 There's one big contradiction because from all of the protesters I have seen they support big business in the clothes they wear, the tent's they use and many other things so they are making themselves look like hypocrites.
1 They have now overdone it...old news...only the professional protesters left who protest about anything just for the sake of protesting....they are now encroaching on public space which they are not respecting...arrest them...It is okay to have your say...then move on..next time I want to go camping for free I could choose whatever spot I wish..pitch my tent and say I am protesting..then they won't move me on right???yea right
1 They don't really know what they are protesting for
1 Don't know anything about Occupy wall street.



Thanks to everyone who took the time to answer the survey and congratulations to the three winners of a $50 book voucher. Jenese from Nelson, Liam from Wellington and we are still waiting to hear back from the third person.