Online political users went online for a range of reasons this election season, from watching political videos to donating money or volunteering for campaign activities. Here are some of the activities in which they engaged online.

Get basic campaign information about the candidates

Fully 57% of online political users (representing 42% of all internet users) went online this election season to get information about the candidates’ positions on the issues or about their voting records, making this activity one of the most common outside of looking for election news. This type of political information gathering is also widely dispersed throughout the online politically engaged population, even among those who are not typically highly engaged in the online political debate. For instance, among online political users 45% of those with only a high school education went online for candidates’ voting records and stances on issues, as did 47% of those earning $30,000 or less per year. Like email for the general population, going online for basic candidate positions and voting histories seems to offer an entry point for access to the world of online politics.

Our wording of this question has evolved over time, making direct comparisons across election seasons somewhat problematic. However, it does appear that the size of the population looking for basic candidate information has grown since the last presidential election cycle. In 2004, 31% of internet users said that they had gone online for information about the candidates’ positions on the issues, compared with the 42% this past election cycle who went online for information about the candidates’ positions or voting records. While just 10% of internet users did this in 2000, our question wording at that time referred only to looking up voting records, and not the more general issue of the candidates’ issue positions.

Watch political videos

By the end of the campaign, fully 60% of online political users (representing 45% of American internet users) had gone online to watch some sort of video related to politics or the election. A great deal of this video-watching involved “official” online videos from either a campaign or a new organization, as 50% of online political users watched these types of videos over the course of the campaign. However, unofficial (often user-generated) content was nearly as popular: 43% of online political users watched videos that did not come from either of these two sources.

Young adults are leading the way in their consumption of online video. Among online political users, 57% of 18-29 year olds watched online videos from a campaign or news organization and 54% watched video from sources other than the campaigns or traditional media. In total, two-thirds (67%) of online political users age 18-29 watched some form of online campaign video this election season. This equates to nearly half (48%) of all 18-29 year olds (political users and non-users, online and offline alike) who watched online political videos in 2008. Members of the under-30 age group are the most intense online video watchers, but older voters hardly shunned online video. Six in ten online political users age 30-49 watch online political videos—this represents 41% of all adults in this age cohort.

Customize their political news

Voters also took advantage of tools such as RSS feeds and email alerts to get customized political news tailored to their specific interests. In total, nearly one-quarter (23%) of online political users went online for customized news about politics or the 2008 election. This represents 17% of all internet users.

Younger voters (particularly those under the age of 30) took great advantage of the ability to customize their news and get the latest updates on the campaign. Among online political users age 18-29, 21% signed up online to receive updates about the campaign, 12% customized a web page to display political information tailored to their interests, and 8% set up a politics-related RSS feed.

Users of various social media applications were also interested in obtaining timely customized information—perhaps so they could be the first to share them with their friends—with Twitter users leading the way. Compared with other online political users, Twitter users were much more likely to sign up online for updates about the election (26% did this, vs. 14% of non-users) and to subscribe to political RSS feeds (14% vs. 4%).

Minority voters also show a strong affinity for having customized political news delivered to them. Among online political users fully one-quarter (25%) of African-Americans and English-speaking Hispanics³ signed up to receive online updates about the election; 23% of blacks set up political email news alerts; and 18% of Hispanics set up a customized web page to show them especially relevant political information during the campaign. In each case minorities are significantly more likely to do these activities than whites, although due to the relatively small number of black (n=84) and Hispanic (n=70) online political users in our survey, these results should be interpreted with some caution.

Share or pass along the things they find online

Unlike traditional methods of political communication, tools such as email are designed for sharing—they allow voters to instantly and easily forward things that interest them to their friends and family. As such, it does not come as a surprise that sharing and forwarding political information is one of the most common activities outside of watching political videos online. Fully 44% of online political users (representing 33% of internet users and 24% of all adults) did one or more of the following activities related to political content sharing in 2008:

• 37% of online political users forwarded political commentary or writing to others
• 25% forwarded political audio or video recordings to others
• 22% shared photos, videos or audio files online related to the campaign or the elections

In contrast to online video (which already had high levels of usage at the time of our May 2008 pre-election survey) political content sharing experienced significant growth over the course of the 2008 race. Compared with our pre-election survey conducted in May 2008, voters in the final stages of the campaign were far more likely to have forwarded both written political commentary and political audio or video recordings to their friends.

Also notable is the extent to which older Americans took part in sharing and passing along political links and commentary during this election cycle. Among those age 65 and older who engaged in the online political process, fully 41% forwarded political writing or commentary to their friends and family, and an additional 32% forwarded on political audio or video recordings. This is likely related to those seniors’ familiarity with email as a tool for non-political communications with friends and family members—while younger adults dominate political video and using social networking sites for political purposes, seniors more than hold their own in keeping the political conversation going via email.

In an election featuring the first African-American general election candidate for president, African-American voters were excited to share photos, audio or video files with their friends and family. Fully 39% of black online political users did this during the campaign, significantly higher than the figure for whites (20%) or Hispanics (22%). However, as noted above the number of African-American online political users in our survey was relatively small (n=84) so these results should be interpreted with some caution.

Engage in traditional political activities like donating money or volunteering their time

Many of the online activities discussed here led to engagement in traditional forms of political activism. Indeed, they were designed for this purpose. One in ten online political users (11%, representing 9% of internet users) went online to contribute money to one or more candidates for office and 8% (6% of internet users) went online to sign up for volunteer activities related to the campaign—such as helping to register voters or helping get people to the polls.

Not surprisingly, donating money online is mostly the province of older, college-educated and higher-income voters, although younger adults are much more likely than other age groups to volunteer online to help out a campaign or candidate. Fully 14% of online political users age 18-29 volunteered online, compared with 6% of 30-49 year olds, 8% of 50-64 year olds and 5% of those ages 65 and older.