Herald Sun Voteline.

The Melbourne Newspaper, the Herald Sun has a customer base of over 300,000 Purchasers. (The exact number escapes me but I am pretty sure it is much higher, but I am playing it safe for now.)

Each day it has a voteline question where they ask readers to respond to a specific item in the news, and also posts the previous day’s question’s results in a percentage graph.

I always check out the questions and responses, but I don’t really take much notice of the actual winner or it’s percentage points. No, what I look at is the actual number of people who respond to a specific question, to see how people really feel.

I have seen some questions where there was a clear winner, but only 80 or 90 people have bothered to respond to the question. A reasonable response, as far as I can gather is when somewhere between 200 to 500 people respond. You know a lot of people are interested when the responders number between 1 & 2 thousand voters.

So I was not surprised to see that 56.4% disagreed to the Question asked on May 29^th. No not surprised at all, but what really surprised me was that 10,094 people felt strongly enough to vote and voice their opinion. Quite the largest response that I have seen in watching the numbers.

So what was this item that triggered such a massive response? The situation in Zimbabwe? The Burma Cyclone? The Earthquakes In China? World Poverty? The War in Iraq? Well actually it was none of the above, nor Euthanasia, Abortion, Aids, Gay rights. Not even the recent Budget or even the current Petrol prices, both major topics of late. No! All it was, was whether one agreed or not with a TV Station’s decision to axe an ex- Footballer from their “The Footy Show:”

Sure the Guy is controversial, but he always has been and if you don’t like him you could always do what I did, and never watch Him or the show. However, obviously many did and are upset about his axing, but another large number, just 12% below them agreed with the decision.

Now I don’ really care one way or the other on this rather trivial matter, but obviously many do! So, today I am asking you, what is really important to you now? What topic would provoke you into responding to a Poll like this one? Something of worldwide implications? A local national Item? Or something as trivial as this? Which could be simply resolved by people switching their sets off or watching something else. And in fact that is what prompted this “resting” of this “Personality”. While the ratings were high, he was kept on, when they dropt, so was he.

So today I am just wondering, “What is it that really stirs some real emotion in you?” And is that subject really worth it or would everyone be better served, if you were to channel your emotions and energy elsewhere? Over to you for your view please.