Analysis of Election 2006 Online

Twice as many Americans used the Internet as their primary source of news about the 2006 campaign compared with the most recent mid-term election in 2002, according to a survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project and the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

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.

A post-election survey shows that the 2006 race also produced a notable class of online political activists. 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.