I spoke today with Paul Brewer, who is part of the University of Delaware Center for Public Communication.  They conducted an independent opinion poll on net neutrality.  They had been surprised to see that there was almost no research on the subject, even less that had not been sponsored by someone with a position.

The main finding was that the majority of the public really didn’t know anything about net neutrality at all.  The majority of those that did had gotten their information from satirical late night news sources. John Oliver had the highest.   They used a good and objective methodology, which required careful wording of the questions due to the complex nature of the subject.

They didn’t use the phrase “fast lanes” but asked questions that went to the heart of whether or not the public want tiered internet services.  The finding was that the public does not. The more informed the sources were, the more strongly felt the opinion was. 

Perhaps the most illuminating finding was that people that watched streaming video were much more likely to be familiar with the issue than people that only relied on traditional cable programming.  I may need to have a good think about it, that might be the whole issue in one single factoid.

You can download the full report here.