March 21, 2003 <\/em><\/p>\n\n
\n\nACKNOWLEDGEMENTS<\/b> \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n\n
This report was funded by separate grants from The Pew Charitable Trusts.\u00a0 The interviews discussed in Part One were conducted by Stephanie Craig, Justin Germany, and Robert Samaan of the Institute.\u00a0 The survey discussed in Part Two was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates. The portal content analysis in Part Three was performed by Craig, Germany, and Samaan, with additional analysis by Ryan Thornburg of IPDI.<\/p>\n\n
\n\nEXECUTIVE SUMMARY<\/strong><\/p>\n\nCampaigners have always tried to reach voters in order to win elections.\u00a0 Citizens have always tried to read campaigns in order to vote their interests.\u00a0 The Internet seems to offer a great two-way conduit for campaigners and citizens, with plenty of room for third parties to provide context and commentary as well.\u00a0 Some are making good on the vision of a lively online political discourse pegged to elections.\u00a0 But at the milestone of the 2002 midterm elections, the evidence shows that political cyberspace was populated mostly by tentative campaigners and wandering citizens.\u00a0 The major portals of Web traffic played a late, mild, yet remarkably sophisticated role in the proceedings.<\/p>\n\n
This report examines the phenomenon of online politics from three contemporaneous perspectives.\u00a0 It presents data compiled in October and November 2002 through a survey of American adults, a questionnaire answered by managers and communications directors for campaigns in closely contested races, and a content analysis of campaign information as it appeared on three major Internet portal home pages: AOL, MSN, and Yahoo.\u00a0 The report also draws on a content analysis of 102 candidate Web sites, and IPDI\u2019s monitoring of the 2002 online campaigns on a daily basis for new and newsworthy developments.<\/p>\n\n
The surveys document two major developments in online politics.\u00a0 The first is the emergence of e-mail as a mainstream channel of political communication.\u00a0 E-mail has become an increasingly popular and potent tool for campaigners in America.\u00a0 Two-thirds of politically engaged Internet users during the 2002 election cycle sent or received email related to the campaign.\u00a0 The second breakthrough success concerns interest-group Web sites, with 73% of those who use the Internet for politics last year saying they checked such organization sites for information.<\/p>\n\n
No one should expect campaigners, citizens, and portals to communicate harmoniously about elections.\u00a0 Politics is too contentious for that, reflecting the turbulence of capitalism and divisions in society.\u00a0 Still, each of these groups of participants in online politics exhibited frustrations with what they aspired to do.\u00a0 They sat at their respective keyboards, and struck sour notes.<\/p>\n\n
Candidates in closely contested races:<\/p>\n\n