Pew Poll: Internet Users More Politically Aware
Pew Internet & American Life Project poll shows that Internet users have a wide awareness of political issues, including those issues that go beyond their own political preferences. It puts a damper on the idea that people getting their political information from the Net are just stuck in their own ideological world.
Here is the full text of the Pew press release:
More Americans get campaign news online and the internet helps them become aware of a wider range of political views. As wired Americans increasingly go online for political news and commentary, a new survey finds that the internet is contributing to a wider awareness of political views during this year’s campaign season.
This is significant because prominent commentators have expressed concern that growing use of the internet would be harmful to democratic deliberation. They worried that citizens would use the internet to seek information that reinforces their political preferences and avoid material that challenges their views. That would hurt citizens’ chances of contributing to informed debates.
The new survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in collaboration with the University of Michigan School of Information survey belies those worries. It shows that internet users have greater overall exposure political arguments, including those that challenge their candidate preferences and their positions on some key issues.
