Some new data from the Pew Research Center puts some numbers around the growing influence of the Internet on political campaigns. None of this is too surprising, but it quantifies what we already know: that the Internet is becoming more important in political campaigns, especially among younger people. Each election, the Internet grows stronger and stronger. This data suggests that in 2008 the Internet may still not be the deciding medium in the election, but it certainly points to that being the case in 2012.
Nearly a quarter of the population say they “regularly” learn something about the presidential campaigns from the Internet, up from 13 percent in 2004. the Internet is still trailing TV news and daily newspapers, but is now beating morning TV shows and radio.
Those numbers change if you look at the same question by the age of the respondents. A full 42 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds (double the amount from the last election) regularly get their campaign news from the Internet, handily beating all other sources including cable news (35 percent)nightly network news (24 percent) and daily newspapers (25 percent). In the 30-t0-49-year-old age bracket that number drops to 26 percent, below cable news and nightly news and tying daily newspapers. If this trend continues, the Internet will be the deciding factor by the 2012 election.
Social networking sites are exerting a small but growing influence as a source of campaign information among younger people. Of the 18-to-29-year-olds who use social networking sites, a full 27 percent get campaign information from them, but only 8 percent have signed up as a “friend” of a candidate.
It’s important to note that all these figures are for the US, and the UK is a few years behind. That said, I think we’ll be seeing the internet play an intriguing role in the upcoming Mayoral elections in London, especially when it comes to Bonking Boris’ gaffes being sent virally round offices from YouTube.
Thanks to Techcrunch.com for this story
