Originally published January 24 2006
Many internet users believe the web boosts their political power
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Researchers at the Center for the Digital Future at the USC Annenberg School polled web surfers and found that 40 percent of them believed the internet gave them greater political power.
That tally is several points higher than last year, according to the report.
Political empowerment "means the ability to actually have an impact, and not just gain insight or knowledge," Jeffrey Cole, the project's director, said in a conference call with reporters.
Jeffrey Cole, Research Professor at USC, explains the increasingly important role that the Internet plays in the political process.
The Digital Future Project, now in its fifth year, surveyed residents older than age 12 from 2,000 American households, which were intended to provide a representative sample of the nation.
Responses came both from Internet users (defined as those who log on at least once per month) and from "nonusers" (the remainder).
The findings come as the prospect of campaign finance rules being extended to the Internet continues to draw outcry from politicians and bloggers.
These groups have touted the grassroots, democratizing merits and low cost barriers of Net-based politicking.
Despite this, a measure that would have exempted Net activity from campaign finance rules was shot down in the U.S. House of Representatives last month.
According to the University of Southern California study, more than 40 percent of surveyed Internet users went online to gather information2004 presidential campaign season.
About three-quarters of them said they did so because they were undecided on those matters, and the vast majority said they were "satisfied" with the content that the Web supplied.
Less than 5 percent of the Internet users relied on blogs for campaign information.
"Traditional media" Web sites and official campaign sites received the vast majority of visitors, the survey said.
The research project also compiled answers to more than 100 questions spanning topics like e-commerce, social habits and general usage patterns.
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