Campaign 2008 And The Internet
If you are a fundraiser or communicator for an advocacy group, here’s another "must read" report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
As they summarize:
Fully 46% of all Americans have used the internet, email or cell phone text messaging to get news about the campaign, share their views and mobilize others.
Further, the proportion of Americans going online on a typical day at the tail end of the primary season to get political news or information has more than doubled since a comparable point in the 2004 race-from 8% of all adults in spring 2004 to 17% of all adults in spring 2008.
Pew’s recent poll found, among other things, that younger voters are among the most active and intense internet users. These online voters are more likely to support Obama.
Three online activities have become especially prominent as the presidential primary campaigns have progressed:
First, 35% of Americans say they have watched online political videos – a figure that nearly triples the reading the Pew Internet Project got in the 2004 race.
Second, 10% say they have used social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace to gather information or become involved. This is particularly popular with younger voters: Two-thirds of internet users under the age of 30 have a social networking profile, and half of these use social networking sites to get or share information about politics or the campaigns.
Third, 6% of Americans have made political contributions online, compared with 2% who did that during the entire 2004 campaign.
A significant number of voters are also using the internet to gain access to campaign events and primary documents. Some 39% of online Americans have used the internet to access "unfiltered" campaign materials, which includes video of candidate debates, speeches and announcements, as well as position papers and speech transcripts.
Get the full report here.
Where online politics goes, so follows online advocacy.
Tom
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