Twitter, Facebook Play Very Modest Roles
Cable news is now the top regular source for campaign news, with 36% of Americans say they are regularly learning about the candidates or campaign on those networks. The long-term decline in the number of Americans who get campaign news from local and network TV has steepened as a consequence of the fact that fewer people are closely following the campaign compared to four years ago when there were contested primaries in both political parties.
The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press' 2012 campaign news survey, conducted Jan. 4-8 among 1,507 adults nationwide, also found a sharp decline in the number of Americans who get campaign information from their local newspapers.
In previous campaigns, declining figures for traditional sources were at least partly offset by increasing numbers turning to the internet. But that is not the case in 2012, as the number regularly getting campaign news online has leveled off. This is largely due to a lack of interest in the early 2012 campaign among younger Americans, who have traditionally been the broadest internet news consumers.
Many of the newest internet tools for getting campaign information, including social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, are being used by a relatively limited audience.
Read the full report for detailed results on the number of Americans using various news sources for campaign information, as well as these subjects:
- Young people and campaign news
- Social networks and campaign news
- Public views on bias in news coverage
- Use of new technologies by campaigns to reach voters
- The partisan cable landscape
- Top online sources for campaign news
- The impact of candidate debates
