Internet and Politics

I’ve been doing a bit of digging on the impact of the Internet with regard to politics. Here is some food for thought from the Pew Internet and American Life Project (2006) report on e-government and e-policy.

1. On a typical day in August 2006, 26 million Americans were using the Internet for new or information about politics and the elections.
2. This represented a 5 million increase since Pew ran surveys during the November 2004 elections (21 million); and a 15 million increase since 2002 (11 million).

Trends in Internet access, as opposed to consumption, had a lot to do with the jump between 2002 and 2006 but the shift between 2004 and 2006 likely had a lot to do with changing patterns of consumption.