Interwebs and the Election

Well, this is encouraging. More and more people are circumventing traditional media and looking for information online:

A record-breaking 46% of Americans have used the internet, email or cell phone text messaging to get news about the campaign, share their views and mobilize others.

A new report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project titled "The Internet and the 2008 Election" is chock full of goodies:

35% of Americans say they have watched online political videos a figure that nearly triples the reading the Pew Internet Project got in the 2004 race.

6% of Americans have made political contributions online, compared with 2% who did that during the entire 2004 campaign.

and this is the best part:

Some 39% of online Americans have used the internet to access "unfiltered" campaign materials, which includes video of candidate debates, speeches and announcements, as well as position papers and speech transcripts.

There's some not so great stuff too:

On one hand, 28% of wired Americans say that the internet makes them feel more personally connected to the campaign, and 22% say that they would not be as involved in the campaign if not for the internet. At the same time, however, even larger numbers feel that the internet magnifies the most extreme viewpoints and is a source of misinformation for many voters.

But this is all from the summary. I'll take a closer look at the full report when I have more time in the morning.