Best Practices Page 2
Impact of
Technology on the 2008 Election
By Peggy Steffens
The Pew Internet and American Life project recently conducted a
survey about the impact of technological tools on the 2008
election. The research showed that 46% of Americans have used
the Internet, e-mail or cell phone text messaging to get news
about the campaign, share their views and mobilize others.
The 2004 election brought technology to the forefront with the
impact of blogging on the campaign. In the 2008 election,
three online activities have become prominent: online political
videos, social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook and
online political contributions. In the 2008 election, 35% of
Americans say they have watched online political videos, 10%
have used social networking sites to gather information, and 6%
of Americans have made political contributions online, up from
2% in the 2004 campaign.
- 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.
- 19% of Americans go online once a
week or more to do something related to the campaign, and 6% go
online to engage politically on a daily basis.
- 23% of Americans say they receive e-mails urging
them to support a candidate or discuss the campaign once a week
or more.
- 11% of Americans have contributed to the political conversation by
forwarding or posting someone else's commentary about the race.
- 12% of online 18-29 year olds have posted their own political
commentary or writing to an online newsgroup, website or blog.
To read a copy
of the entire Internet and the 2008 Election Report, go to
http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_2008_election.pdf |
