Nerdy, enthusiastic, talented: it makes a happy acronym for the small population of bloggers keeping watch on the opinion polls and how the media handle them in this acutely tense political atmosphere.

Though small in number, they exert new accountability on the media and pollsters alike, providing a concrete example of how the Net is democratising the media, if in a small and limited way.

Mumble, Poll Bludger, Possums Pollytics and Oz Politics are four examples. Here the poll tragic can lose himself in a maze of analysis, much of it far more insightful and daring than anything you find in the mainstream media.

They live off the data supplied by the media pollsters – Newspoll, Nielsen, Morgan, Galaxy – but burrow down into the data, compare one poll with another, show trends, and feed in related data such as current betting odds.

From the most recent postings, a picture emerges of a Government headed for probable defeat, but fighting with rodentian tenacity.

Possum is as original as it is irreverent. The latest offering is “Why Howard is rooted in one simple graph“. This traces the Opposition’s primary vote alongside interest payments as a proportion of disposable income over the 20 years from 1986 to 2006. As more of people’s disposable income gets swallowed up by interest payments, so the Opposition’s support grows.

Oz Politics is very strong on statistical analysis and trends. Its latest offering is a graph showing the Government’s two-party-preferred vote climbing gradually but steadily since March. It says the Coalition is “clawing its way back into the game for a very tight election contest in November or December”.

Oz Politics also summarises the betting market from five bookmakers. All five show the money is against the Coalition winning.

Poll Bludger must never sleep: a running commentary on the Greatorex by-election in Alice Springs at the weekend; a summary of polling in the South Australian marginal seats of Kingston and Wakefield (Labor leading in both), and an up-to-the minute trend report this morning on Galaxy’s latest voting-intention survey in the News Ltd tabloids showing a possible narrowing in Labor’s lead, although it is still eight points (54-46).

Mumble – the creation of Peter Brent, a doctoral candidate who describes himself as “hard-wired towards mathematics” – offers sharp and sardonic commentary on question design, and generally keeps close tabs on how the media report their polls.

Digesting all this is not easy and you can see why mainstream media, driven by the concept of the seven-second grab, shy away from publishing it. But they take notice, as shown by the recent outburst of indignation from The Australian over criticism by bloggers of the way it reported its Newspoll.

The pollsters take notice too. The Morgan organisation is plugging on its website an honourable mention it has received from the Possum.

It is a tight and arcane symbiosis – bloggers, media, pollsters – but it is enriching our public debate and exerting some refreshing accountability.