Pew: Internet Overtakes Radio

Via OTB, (who I'm linking to as the source site requires registration).

The Internet surpassed radio as a source for political news in the United States last year as more people went online to keep up with the presidential election campaign, according to a new report released today. Twenty-nine per cent of US adults used the Internet to get political news last year, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. That's up from 4 per cent in 1996 and 18 per cent in 2000.

Television remained the dominant medium for most voters, but 18 per cent said they got most of their political news from the Internet, compared with 17 per cent who said they turned to the radio for their news. For those with a broadband connection at home, the Internet rivalled newspapers in importance.

Most Internet users surveyed said they voted to re- elect Republican President George W Bush, but supporters of Democratic challenger Sen John Kerry were more likely to say the Internet helped them settle on a candidate.

The information is broken down further;

52% of internet users, or about 63 million people, said they went online to get news or information about the 2004 elections. We call them online political news consumers.

35% of internet users, or about 43 million people, said they used email to discuss politics, and one of the most popular email subjects was jokes about the candidates and the election.

11% of internet users, or more than 13 million people, went online to engage directly in campaign activities such as donating money, volunteering, or learning about political events to attend.

Pew Research PDF's available here.

From Editor and Publisher;

A Pew Center study released today found that using the Internet to get news of politics during the 2004 presidential contest grew sixfold from 1996, while the influence of newspapers sank.

In 1996, only 3% of those surveyed called the Web one of their two leading sources of campaign news. In 2004, the figure was 18%. Reliance on TV rose slightly from 72% to 78% but prime use of newspapers plunged from 60% to 39%.

[...]

About one in ten said the Internet had information not available elsewhere. They were more likely to visit blogs or campaign sites for information. Blogs "are having a modest level of impact on the voter side and probably a more dramatic impact on the institutional side," Lee Rainie, author of the study, told the Associated Press. "Blogs are still a realm where very, very active and pretty elite, both technologically oriented people and politically oriented people go."