More Americans use web as source of political info

ClickZ - The percentage of Americans who regularly go online for news about the presidential campaign has increased from 13% in 2004 to 24% for the 2008 elections. "Internet's Broader Role in Campaign 2008" released by Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and Pew Internet & American Life Project looks at the increased usage of social networking sites and online videos for topical election news.

42% of young adults ages 18 to 29 use the Web as a primary source, up from 20% in 2004. As a whole, nearly one in four American adults regularly learn about campaign information from the Internet, up from 9% during the 2000 presidential campaign.

People get campaign news from many sources. MSNBC leads the pack; 26% of the respondents say they go there. MSNBC is followed by CNN (23%) and Yahoo News (22%). The survey identifies sources it categorizes as long-tail sites such as the Drudge Report (3%); MySpace (3%); and YouTube (2%).

Younger audiences cast a wider net to find relevant news. When asked which Web sites they head to for campaign news, 41% of 18 to 49 year olds listed more than one Web site, compared to 24% of people 30 and over. Younger audiences look at more than long-tail news sites; 61% of 18 to 29 year olds get campaign news from at least one of the three top sites (MSNBC, CNN, and Yahoo News) versus 46% over 30 years of age.

The data are part of a quadrennial survey conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Pew Internet & American Life Project on campaign news and political communication. The survey was conducted in December 2007 among 1,430 adults.