11 January 2001

Internet Crosses a Threshold in 2000 U.S. Elections

Washington -- Eighteen percent of Americans went online to find information about the 2000 U.S. elections, a significant increase from the 4 percent who used the Internet to seek political information in the last national election in 1996. Analysts say these survey results prove that the Internet has arrived as a legitimate information medium, but they disagree about whether online political activity is meeting the expectations of the Internet's most enthusiastic advocates.

The Pew Research Center conducted a survey of almost 4,200 Internet users that explored the extent of their online political activity during the 2000 election cycle. At a Washington briefing January 10, Director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project Lee Rainie said the survey shows, "We saw a lot of potential .... but we're not at the point of revolution."

Optimistic analysts of the wired world were making predictions several years ago that the medium could bring dramatic changes to the practice of politics. They envisioned that the Internet would bring more people and greater diversity into politics, reduce the cost of campaigning, and improve the engagement of citizens with their government. Rainie says none of that happened in 2000.

"Most disappointing," he said, was that the survey results do not show that new people came into politics through cyberspace.

The Pew Center findings contrast with the post-election analysis conducted by another respected non-profit research organization. "Despite the fact that some have said the Web made little difference in Campaign 200, we have found that it made a great deal of difference for the Web-enthusiasts," said Steven M. Schneider, editor of NetElection.org and a research Fellow at the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

The Annenberg study focused on how candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate used the Worldwide Web in their campaigns, and how well their sites were received by users. Schneider and his fellow researchers found that 56 percent of congressional candidates had Web sites in 2000, but they did not provide the type of information most users said they would have preferred.

The candidates' sites generally provided content such as biographical material, issue positions, and information on campaign contributions and volunteer opportunities. The users told the surveyors they would like to have seen more comparison of candidates with their opponents and more interactive content such as discussion groups and e-mail lists.

"I'm not sure merely having a Web site in the next (election) cycle will be enough," said Schneider. The researcher also notes that when the election year began he assumed that virtually all congressional candidates would include Web sites in their campaign strategies, an assumption he now characterizes as "na��e."

"Campaign 2000 Web sites set the stage for future political sites," said W. Russell Neuman, Internet and politics project director for the Annenberg Center. "Providing citizens with the information they want is the challenge for the next generation of candidate Web sites."

Neuman said the Annenberg research also projects that the Internet will surpass newspapers as a major source of election information by the next presidential election in 2004. According to the Pew Center research, an estimated 32 million people sought political information online in the 2000 U.S. election cycle.

Arizona Senator John McCain's candidacy for the Republican Party's presidential nomination demonstrated the effectiveness of a Web site as a fundraising tool. McCain campaign strategist Dan Schnur also participated in the January 10 panel, and he said the candidate collected $6 million through his campaign site before he conceded the Republican nomination to George W. Bush. When McCain campaign officials launched the site, Schnur said, they thought it might elicit about $15,000, the approximate amount spent to develop and maintain the site.

Beyond that fundraising success, however, Schnur said political insiders are still exploring their use of the new medium, and debating how it can best be used to promote a candidate's message. He said there is "a great deal of enthusiasm (about Internet campaigning) but not a lot of know-how" among political operatives.

Journalist Leslie Wayne followed the use of the Internet in the 2000 campaign for the New York Times newspaper. She emphasized the emergence of grass-roots activism online during this period as "a growing force under the radar screen." Times research of that trend found 6,700 Web sites launched by citizens and activist groups in May, 2000.

Some of these citizen sites surpassed the sophistication of many of the candidates' sites because of their extensive use of the Internet's interactive capabilities -- links, discussion groups, and e-mail lists. All the panel participants emphasized that these online features are what distinguish the Internet from other media. Effective use of interactivity will define successful political activity online in the future, they predicted.

Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.
Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov