Increased Role For Internet In 2008 Election

A Pew Internet & American Life Project survey has found that 74% of internet users, representing 55% of the entire adult population, used the internet in 2008. This was the first time this number exceeded 50%. Among their findings:

  • Nearly one in five (18%) internet users posted their thoughts, comments or questions about the campaign on an online forum such as a blog or social networking site.
  • Fully 45% of internet users went online to watch a video related to the campaign.
  • One in three internet users forwarded political content to others. Indeed, the sharing of political content (whether writing and commentary or audio and video clips) increased notably over the course of the 2008 election cycle. While young adults led the way in many political activities, seniors were highly engaged in forwarding political content to their friends and family members.
  • Young voters continued to engage heavily in the political debate on social networking sites. Fully 83% of those age 18-24 have a social networking profile, and two-thirds of young profile owners took part in some form of political activity on these sites in 2008.

While the internet can be valuable for obtaining far more information on the candidates than was available in the past, there is an increased tendency for people to frequent cites which hold a particular political viewpoint:

Additionally, online political news consumers are delving deeply into the long tail of online political content–nearly half of online political news consumers visited five or more distinct types of online news sites this election cycle. However, this deeper involvement may change the way voters view online news content. Voters are increasingly moving away from news sites with no point of view, and towards sites that match their own political viewpoints–and this is especially true of those who delve deepest into the world of online political content.

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