PJNet

 Pew Internet & American Life Project releases interesting findings about how the public is using the Internet and mobile devices in this Presidential election year — and Barack Obama has an advantage. According the report’s press release:  

A record-breaking 46% of Americans have used the internet, email or cell phone text messaging to get news about the campaign, share their views and mobilize others. And Barack Obama’s backers have an edge in the online political environment.

Here is more:

Led by young voters, Democrats and Obama supporters have taken the lead in their use of online tools for political engagement.

• 74% of wired Obama supporters have gotten political news and information online, compared with 57% of online Clinton supporters.
• In a head-to-head matchup with internet users who support Republican McCain, Obama’s backers are more likely to get political news and information online (65% vs. 56%).
• Obama supporters outpace both Clinton and McCain supporters in their usage of online video, social networking sites and other online campaign activities.

Here is general information about youth, the Internet and mobile devices in this election year: 

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…

Young voters are helping to define the online political debate; 12% of online 18-29 year olds have posted their own political commentary or writing to an online newsgroup, website or blog.

And this:

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.

Read the full report here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 at 5:24 pm and is filed under Pew, Presidential Election, Uncategorized, digital media, presidential primary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.