With its early start and crowded field, the 2008 presidential campaign has generated an extensive amount of media coverage. Since the beginning of the year, the race to become the 44th president of the United States has been the second-biggest story, trailing only the debate over Iraq war strategy.
But the mainstream media are not the only information source for citizens seeking news about the candidates. The campaigns themselves, through their official websites, seem to be challenging the press as a destination for campaign news. Furthermore, these highly interactive sites are facilitating everything from blogging to fundraising to social networking.
To get a sense of what these sites offer and how the candidates use them, The Project for Excellence in Journalism conducted a detailed study of the official websites of all 19 announced presidential candidates -- eight Democrats and 11 Republicans.
Read the full article Are Candidate Web Sites Propaganda or News? at the Pew Research Center Web site.