• by Ross Fadner , January 13, 2004

The landscape of political news consumption, like other media content, is shifting and the Internet appears to be the main factor. While television news remains the dominant means by which Americans are learning about next year's presidential election, the Internet continues to make gains that indicate it has become a crucial medium for marketers and political advertisers alike.

The Pew Research Center report, entitled "Cable and Internet Loom Large in Fragmented Political News Universe," finds that today's fractionalized media environment continues to lure more and more consumers away from local news, network TV news, and newspapers, and-particularly among young people-more towards alternative media sources for campaign information such as the Internet and comedy TV shows like "Saturday Night Live" and "The Daily Show."

The survey, conducted among 1,506 adults between Dec. 19 and Jan. 4, examines the many channels consumers are presented with to gather campaign-related information as well as how thoroughly they consume the information.

While local news, network TV news, and newspaper political information consumption have all slipped since the 2000 campaign, cable now trails leader local TV by only 4 percentage points. Young people, college graduates, and wealthy Americans all cite cable as their leading source for election news.

Thirteen percent of Americans regularly learn something about the election from the Internet, up 4 percent from the previous presidential election four years ago. Another 20 percent say they sometimes get campaign news from the Internet. One in five young people under 30 regularly turn to the Internet and Comedy TV programs for campaign information.

Interestingly, Internet usage for campaign information has a greater impact on campaign knowledge than level of education among consumers under 30. In fact, the report underlines the fact that relying on the Internet as a source of campaign information results in better overall knowledge about the candidates and the campaign than regular usage of other media. People who use the Internet, listeners of National Public Radio, and readers of news magazines had the highest number of correct answers to campaign questions directed to them during the survey.

The report notes that the key to learning from the Internet is active use of the medium. More Internet users claim that they "come across" campaign news online (24 percent) than go online specifically to learn about the presidential campaign (14 percent). Apparently, inadvertent exposure to campaign news online can cause people to look into campaign information.

However, even among Internet users, the Internet remains a secondary source for campaign information at this stage. Seventy-six percent of Internet users say television is their first or second main source of political news-37 percent cite newspapers and 20 percent the Internet. But the number of Americans who mention the Internet as a major source of campaign news has nearly doubled since 2000 (from 7 percent to 13 percent).

People who regularly learn from entertainment programs-young or not-tend to be poorly informed about campaign developments. In general, the report cites that Americans show little awareness of candidates' backgrounds. Three out of ten could correctly identify Wesley Clark as the Democratic candidate who served as an Army General, and 26% knew that Richard Gephardt is a former House majority leader.