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Facebook And Twitter Not As Big As Cable When It Comes To Presidential Campaign

By in Social Media


We’ve heard a lot in the last few years about how influential Facebook and Twitter are becoming when it comes to American politics.  Despite what we’ve heard, a recent study by Pew Research suggests that cable television is currently the clear choice for election information that voters trust.  36% of Americans said they leaned on cable news for their political information.  This research flies in the face of a lot of common wisdom that has been preaching that social media has pushed traditional media outlets to the wayside.  Take a look at a few of the key highlights.

People Are Not Getting Their Election Coverage From Social Media

The biggest loser of interest, according to the study, is newspapers.  This comes as no surprise to anyone who has watched the rise of social media outlets in the last few years.  Eyeballs are now glued to the live streaming of the Internet and to the non-stop updates of cable TV.  Only 20% of respondents stated they still relied on local newspapers for their political news and views.  In 2012, there’s been less of a push by people to read their election news online than in past years.  Pew posits that this is true because many young voters just aren’t into this year’s candidates and election and they would be the ones most likely to use social media and internet news websites to gather information.  In fact, only 20% of people who are younger than 30 even said they’re following the campaign closely.  It looks like an apathetic electorate and a low voter turnout can be expected this year.

Twitter Is Not A Source Of Election News For 95% Of Respondents

If you’ve ever been to Twitter, learning that only 5% of people consider that social media network to be important for their campaign information should come as no surprise.  This particular destination is quite fast-moving and is geared towards small tidbits of info being distributed fast.  Even the respondents who said they were big users of Twitter said they didn’t use the site for their election campaign research.

Some of this research flies in the face of what we’ve been told for years.  The newspaper business was said to be declining because of people getting online news, but it’s stupid to ignore the fact that cable news is outdoing its online rivals quite significantly.

Do you get your election and campaign news online or do you still watch cable?  Feel free to comment.