Legal Commentary

Elections in the Internet Age

By TChris

According to a report (pdf) released today by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, "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." The readers of this post are all in that 46 percent. John McCain is not.

For list lovers, the top three election-related internet activities are: [more ...]

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. ... Third, 6% of Americans have made political contributions online, compared with 2% who did that during the entire 2004 campaign.

More findings:

• 11% of Americans have contributed to the political conversation by forwarding or posting someone else's commentary about the race.
• 5% have posted their own original commentary or analysis.
• 6% have gone online to donate money to a candidate or campaign.
• 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.

The good, the bad, and the conflicted:

Yet despite the growth in the number of people who are politically engaged online, internet users express some ambivalence about the role of the internet in the campaign. On one hand, 28% of wired Americans say that the internet makes them feel more personally connected to the campaign, and 22% say that they would not be as involved in the campaign if not for the internet. At the same time, however, even larger numbers feel that the internet magnifies the most extreme viewpoints and is a source of misinformation for many voters.

If you're worried that all this political stuff will clog the internet tubes, or if you're a heavy consumer of internet video, you might want to take note of a new scheme to charge users more for indulging their online interests. On a related subject (tubes regulation), there's a noteworthy difference in the positions of Obama and McCain on net neutrality. Check it out.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on June 15, 2008 (boomark / email).