[AktiviX] Political Influentials Online in the 2004 Presidential Campaign

Paul Mobbs mobbsey at gn.apc.org
Mon Feb 9 19:56:39 UTC 2004


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http://www.ipdi.org/Influentials/Influentials.htm

[note - the report comes as a 3.2 megabyte PDF file!]


Institute for Policy, Democracy and the Internet:
"Political Influentials Online in the 2004 Presidential Campaign"


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

A new community of citizens online is defining the 2004 presidential campaign. 
These citizens are Internet-oriented and politically energized, and they 
support their candidates by visiting their Web sites, joining Internet 
discussion groups, reading political Web logs and making political 
contributions over the Internet. Even before the first primary, they played a 
pivotal role in the campaign, and they may be harbingers of permanent change 
in American politics.

WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?

To answer that question, the Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet 
of the Graduate School of Political Management at The George Washington 
University, together with RoperASW and Nielsen//NetRatings, conducted an 
innovative study of these people, whom we call Online Political Citizens 
(OPCs). We conducted two parallel surveys, an online survey to look in-depth 
at this unique community, and a national telephone survey to confirm the 
findings. Our research found that:

# Online Political Citizens are not isolated cyber-geeks, as the media has 
portrayed them. On the contrary, OPCs are nearly seven times more likely than 
average citizens to serve as opinion leaders among their friends, relatives 
and colleagues. OPCs are disproportionately  Influentials,  the Americans who  
tell their neighbors what to buy, which politicians to support, and where to 
vacation,  according to Ed Keller and Jon Berry, authors of the book, The 
Influentials.1 Normally, 10% of Americans qualify as Influentials. Our study 
found that 69% of Online Political Citizens are Influentials.

# About 44% of Online Political Citizens have not been politically involved in 
the past in typical ways they have not previously worked for a campaign, made 
a campaign donation or attended a campaign event.

# Online Political Citizens are twice as likely as members of the general 
public to have a college degree; they have higher incomes, are slightly 
younger, and are more likely to be white, single and male. Internet users in 
general lean in these directions, but the difference between OPCs and average 
Americans is more dramatic.

# Online Political Citizens are significantly more likely to donate money to 
candidates. At this early stage of the 2004 campaign, 46% have donated to a 
candidate or political party in the last two to three months, compared to 10% 
of the general public.

# E-mail is their lifeline: 87% receive political e-mail and 66% forward 
political e-mail to friends and colleagues. OPCs frequent political Web logs, 
political discussion groups and political chat rooms much more often than the 
general public.

# We estimate that Online Political Citizens comprise about 7% of the 
population.

<SNIP>



==========

"We are not for names, nor men, nor titles of Government, nor are we for
this party nor against the other but we are for justice and mercy and
truth and peace and true freedom, that these may be exalted in our nation,
and that goodness, righteousness, meekness, temperance, peace and unity
with God, and with one another, that these things may abound."
(Edward Burroughs, 1659 - from 'Quaker Faith and Practice')


Paul Mobbs, Mobbs' Environmental Investigations,
3 Grosvenor Road, Banbury OX16 5HN, England
tel./fax (+44/0)1295 261864

email - mobbsey at gn.apc.org
website - http://www.fraw.org.uk/mobbsey/index.html



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