E-Democracy

During the last presidential campaign, the online political users play a great role in the selection of president Obama. The study shows high level of online involvement were 59% of voters had used the internet to learn about politics, donate money to their candidate political campaign, share their opinions, and join online groups to support of their candidate. A survey conducted to exam the online voters’ expectations about the levels of engagement and activism when Obama assumes the presidency. The survey findings show that Obama supporters have greater expectations than others (e.g. McCain supporters) about the continuance communication when the new administration takes office. To illustrate, 46% of Obama voters expect to hear directly from Obama and the officials at the new administration at least occasionally over the presidential term. Voters expect to hear from the new administration via social networking (37%), email (34%), mail (38%), phone calls (17%), and text messaging (11%). Furthermore, 62% of 62% of Obama voters expect to press others to support the new administration's policies in the coming year. Prospected candidates should pay more attention for using the internet to engage these online political users, who can dramatically affect the results of the election.

Smith, A. (2008). From BarackObama.com to Change.gov: Those Active in the Obama Campaign Expect to be Involved in Promoting the Administration. Retrieved April 18, 2011 from  http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1068/post-election-voter-engagement