Election 2008 And The Internet
Here from Pew Research is — for my money — the definitive report on the role of the internet in last year’s election.
Below are some topline findings from Pew’s report, but you should treat this as "must read" if you are serious about engaging folks online around issues and causes.
- Some 74% of internet users–representing 55% of the entire adult population–went online in 2008 to get involved in the political process or to get news and information about the election.
- 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.
- Among internet users, 15% of Obama supporters made a contribution online, while 6% of McCain supporters did so.
Great report as usual from the folks at Pew, very rich in detail and insight.
Tom
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