The Net as THE source
p2pnet.net News:- Independent ‘read-write’ online sites are slowly but surely gaining on the traditional corporate media, results from a new study confirm.
Twice as many Americans used the Net as their primary source of news about the 2006 campaign compared with the most recent mid-term election in 2002, says a new study.
“Some 15% of all American adults say the internet was the place where they got most of their campaign news during the election, up from 7% in the mid-term election of 2002,” says the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
And the 2006 race, “also produced a notable class of online political activists,” it states. “Some 23% of those who used the internet for political purposes – the people we call campaign internet users – actually created or forwarded online original political commentary or politically-related videos.”
“Some 25% of all Americans (or 37% of internet users) say they got information online about the 2006 elections and 10% of Americans (15% of internet users) say they exchanged emails about the candidates,” says Pew, going on:
“Many people used the internet both ways – for news and for communication about politics. Altogether, 31% of all Americans (or 46% of internet users) say they were online during the campaign season gathering information and exchanging views via email.”
The growing importance of the internet in political life is tied at least in part to the spread of broadband connections in American homes, says the study.
From November 2002 to November 2006, the share of adult Americans with high-speed connections at home grew from 17% to 45%., it says.
“These ‘always on’ internet connections draw people to online news of any kind, political news included,” declares Pew.
For the first time in it politics and the internet surveys, Pew asked respondents if they’d created and shared political content and found:
- 8% of campaign internet users posted their own political commentary to a newsgroup, website or blog.
- 13% of them forwarded or posted someone else’s political commentary.
- 1% of them created political audio or video recordings.
- 8% of them forwarded or posted someone else’s political audio or video recordings.
“In all, 23% of campaign internet users (or 11% of internet users and 7% of the entire U.S. population) had done at least one of those things,” says the report.
“That translates into about 14 million people who were using the ‘read-write Web’ to contribute to political discussion and activity.”
Asked where they went online to get news and information about the campaign, the greatest number cited traditional news organizations or online services that syndicate news from traditional sources, such as wire services.
But more than half of “campaign internet users (53%)” go to web sources, “beyond those that are fed by traditional news media in the United States,” states Pew.
- 60% got news and information about the campaign from news portals such as Google News or Yahoo! News
- 60% got news and information about the campaign from TV network websites such as CNN.com or ABCNews.com.
- 48% got news and information about the campaign from local news organization websites.
- 31% got news and information about the campaign from websites of major national newspapers such as USA Today or the New York Times.
- 28% got news and information about the campaign from the websites of state or local governments.
- 24% got news and information about the campaign from issue-oriented websites.
- 20% got news and information about the campaign from blogs.
- 20% got news and information about the campaign from international news organization websites, such as the BBC or Al Jazeera.
- 20% got news and information about the campaign from websites created by candidates.
- 19% got news and information about the campaign from news satire websites like The Onion or The Daily Show.
- 19% got news and information about the campaign from the websites of radio news organizations, such as National Public Radio.
- 10% got news and information about the campaign from websites of alternative news organizations, such as Alternet.org or NewsMax.com.
- 10% got news and information about the campaign from email listservs.
Stay tuned.
Also See:
Pew Internet & American Life Project – The number of Americans citing the internet as the source of most of their political news and information doubled since the last midterm election, January 17, 2007
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