Prominent commentators have expressed concern that growing use of the internet would be harmful to democratic deliberation, but a new survey, by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in collaboration with the University of Michigan School of Information survey, belies the worry.

The "Generational Media Study," conducted by Frank N. Magid Associates for the Online Publishers Association compares media choice among age groups and the Internet, television, radio, newspapers and magazines. The study found that the Internet and television are the top two media choices among 18 to 54 year-olds.

Maria Bailey, author of "Marketing to Moms: Getting Your Piece of the Trillion Dollar Market" surveyed more than 600 moms to uncover their attitudes on marketing. The purpose of the study was to quantify the opinions of moms regarding advertising for products and services targeted to mothers and its impact on them as consumers. Bailey concludes that marketers and advertisers are missing their target by not speaking to them with a message that is relevant, valuable, and in a language they understand.

A deep look at automotive destinations, demograpics of viewers, ad types and sizes.

Hitwise reports that while eBay is the most visited online shopping and auction destination, it also is the most searched-for brand in the entire Shopping category. According to the four week Search Term Data study ending Sept. 25, 2004, the popularity of the term "ebay" dwarfs the level of search-engine queries for all other retailers fivefold or more.

A new report from Global Advertising Strategies finds that VoIP marketing is shaped by agenda and audience, but is currently largely aimed at early adopters and should soon shift into more mass market-oriented messaging.

A new report series from Knowledge Networks/SRI finds that households with higher incomes or children are much more likely to own a range of media technologies, from PCs to high-speed Internet access to DVD players. By comparison, the "digital divide" between different ethnic and age groups is less severe, though still substantial in some cases.

Total magazine rate-card-reported advertising revenue for the month of September 2004 closed at $2,286,636,158, an increase of +17.1% compared to September 2003, according to Publishers Information Bureau (PIB). Ad pages totaled 25,165.36, up +8.5% from last year. Year-to-date, rate-card-reported revenue closed at $14,908,324,440, an increase of +9.7%, with ad pages totaling 164,277.46, registering a +2.2% gain.

According to the latest BIGresearch Consumer Intentions and Action survey, the way people feel about spending their discretionary dollars may say a lot about how people plan on voting in the presidential election,. In October says BIGresearch, several of the influences on shopping behaviors are improving. It seems to be good for President Bush. For example, the percentage of consumers who said they've become "more practical" in their purchase behaviors (38.6%) reached its lowest level since September of 2002 (37.1%). Fewer also said they are focusing on Needs over Wants than at any other time.

In conjunction with very topical consumer implant technology, the new Consumer RFID Buzz survey conducted by BIGresearch and Artafact LLC explores consumer concern with privacy abuse. Joe Pilotta, PhD, VP Research BIGresearch. says "We were surprised at how many people are already aware of RFID given the minimal consumer press."