To people outside the political realm, MyDD, CQ Politics, Daily Kos and Espresso Pundit form a splattering of words that might look like a foreign language.

But add a dot com to each one, and they become a political junkie’s wonderland.

A March survey by market-research company Harris Interactive found more than half of Americans never read political blogs. Despite that number, many people say blogs have become an integral part of the evolving political climate.

David Wells, associate faculty director for the Interdisciplinary Studies program, said he agreed with the Harris poll that political activists and junkies are those most drawn to blogs. However, many people sometimes see stories that originated on blogs when they turn on a radio talk show, watch the news on television or read the newspaper, he said.

“In some cases the people reading blogs are influential or opinion leaders or newsmakers,” Wells said.

Wells cited a storm of opposition against Arizona’s 9/11 Memorial that raged in 2006 after Greg Patterson, author of the political blog Espresso Pundit, blasted the memorial for being unpatriotic.

Accounting junior Andrew Rigazio said he tries to read blogs like Espresso Pundit and Sonoran Alliance daily so that he can have an inside track on the newest political news. He said he’s been following the blog scene since he got involved in politics three or four years ago.

Rigazio, the vice president of policy for Tempe’s Undergraduate Student Government, said reading blogs is a great way to stay informed on the races that don’t get as much exposure in the newspaper. Also, the partisan aspect of blogs can make for a more well rounded political junkie, he said.

“You get information that you can’t get in the mainstream media,” Rigazio said. “And the fact that sometimes they are slanted allows for you to see where the other side is coming from.”

Economics and political science junior Todd Phillips said every day he gets political information from about 15 different blogs.

Phillips said having access to so much information makes him an informed voter. Political blogs are still influential even though many people don’t necessarily read them, he said.

“I wouldn’t have been the first person to see the impact of blogs, but it’s created a sense of community,” Phillips said. “You don’t have to know people or be reliant on the media to get your thoughts out there.”

Phillips said one of the tricky things with blogs is gauging their credibility.

Bloggers making statements about candidates, true or not, has become a fairly common practice in the political landscape, said Wylie Timmerman, press secretary for Maricopa County Supervisor candidate Ed Hermes.

“Any campaign is going to have to deal with bloggers, but it should always be about the issues,” he said.

Wells said this factors into one of the negative aspects of politics in this age — bloggers’ penchant to be partisan. He said this could distract from the issues and create heat as opposed to illuminate.

“One of the purposes of blog writers is to take down people from the other party,” Wells said.

Despite the fact that some bloggers intentionally put out inaccurate information, political science and history senior Joel Edman said the benefits of blogs outweigh their negatives. He reads about 10 blogs a day and sees them as a good educational tool, using them to research races for the United States House of Representatives. Edman said he wants to work on political campaigns after he graduates.

“House races are fun because there are so many and they don’t get a lot of play. I like that you have to do a little research to find out what’s going on with them,” Edman said. “The more campaigns you follow, the better you know how they work.”

Reach the reporter at philip.haldiman@asu.edu.