Pew Study Finds that Internet-Based Information is a Significant Component of Campaign News

A new survey report by the Pew Research Center suggests that information and videos on the internet are complementing and in some cases substituting for television campaign ads.

The survey was conducted between July 6th and July 9th, 2007 and included 1017 adults nationwide.

As per the survey report, this new form of campaigning is becoming so popular that candidates are producing and distributing their own videos. It is even encouraging candidates to showcase their own mistakes and public faux pas so that they appear more personable and connect with a larger public audience.

An interesting trend, according to the Pew Report, is that videos that were originally designated for the internet are now also being shown in growing fashion on television.

To gain insight into public awareness of internet videos, Pew analysts tested four prevalent videos produced by campaign organizations to evaluate if individuals were viewing the media captures on the internet or television.

The videos formally evaluated included:

The "I got a crush on Obama" video.

The Hillary and Bill Clinton lampoon of the final-series episode of "The Sopranos"

The "I Feel Pretty" video of John Edwards brushing his hair to this song.

The "Bomb Iran" video footage of Senator John McCain.

As per the Pew report, 44% of the public had knowledge of at least one of the videos with 27% stating that they had actually seen one.

When questioned about the Obama video, 16% of respondents stated that they had heard of the video. Out of the people who asserted that they had knowledge of the video (16% of the total), 12.5% (2/16) saw it on the internet and 37.5% (6/16) said they saw it on television.

With respect to the Clinton ad, 32% of survey participants said that they had heard of the video. Out of this group, 12.5% (4/32), stated seeing it on the internet, and 46.8% (15/32) reported that they had seen it on television.

Fifteen percent of respondents said that they had heard of the Edwards video. Out of these, 13.3% (2/15) stated that the saw it on the internet with 33.3% (5/15) saying that they saw it on television.

The McCain video was claimed to be heard of by 13% of all respondents. Out of this group, 7.6% (1/13) stated that they watched it on the internet while 38.4% (5/13) said that they had seen it on television.

One interesting feature that was not emphasized by the Pew Report, however, was that despite only a minority of respondents actually watching the videos (6 to 19% of the total for each video), anywhere from 16.6 to 28.5% of actual viewers saw the videos principally via the internet. This suggests that roughly 1 in 5 (to 1 in 4) Americans are deriving campaign information on-line via the internet.

This data also implies that the internet is increasingly playing an important role in political news and perhaps may have a pivotal or key role in the selection of the next President of the United States.

Sources:

Pew Center Omnibus Survey Data (page 6): http://people-press.org/reports/questionnaires/342.pdf

Pew Research Center Survey Reports: http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=342