Research Question: What is the relationship between political online campaigns and the 18 to 29 age group?
Hypothesis: Through my experience with social networking sites and drawing upon information I have read I expect that a little less than half of people surveyed will have received or posted information concerning the election via social networking or YouTube, a quarter will report to "becoming a fan" or "following" a presidential candidate and less than a quarter will have donated to a candidate or party online.
Method: I created a simple 5 question yes or no anonymous survey that which I administered via email and FaceBook. The survey was designed to measure participation in various kinds of online campaign efforts.
Survey:
Results: 35 people took the survey.
35.5% of people surveyed have posted election information, videos or opinions to Facebook or Twitter.
62.9% of people surveyed have received election information via Facebook or Twitter
20% of people surveyed have received election information via YouTube.
31.4% of people surveyed have "become a fan" of on Facebook of "followed" on Twitter a presidential candidate.
5.9% of people surveyed have donated to a presidential candidate or party online.
Discussion: This study is restricted in the aspect that the survey was meant to measure the specific age group of 18 to 29 but due to the open nature of the survey on Facebook there is a possibility that an older demographic could have participated regardless of the 18- 29 to 29 - 29 and older ratio on my Facebook (i.e. majority of the friends on my Facebook are in the 18-29 age bracket). Therefore I will analyze my results in accordance with the idea that I am measuring active Facebook users participation in political online campaigns rather then just the 18 to 29 age group.
The results indicate that while 35.5% of active Facebook users participate in the act of sharing information on social networking sites a much larger 62.9% active Facebook users receive election/campaign information from such sites. A media shift has taken place from traditional news outlets (newspapers, magazines, television news broadcasts) to new media forms (podcasts, websites and now social networking). In The internet and the 2008 election Pew Research found that in 2008 46% of Americans participated on the internet to get political news as well as post thoughts, information, opinions, etc. on the campaign. My research coincides with the Pew Research study.
For future studies it should be specified where the receivers are reading the information whether it be from Facebook friends passing on information or from the party and candidates official pages. This would indicate the amount of "citizen journalism" taking place.
20% of active Facebook users reported to receiving election information via YouTube, which comes as a surprise considering the amount of campaign videos (both serious and satire) that exists. Twitter and Facebook are more immediate forms of communication, however, making information easier to access and attain via these sites (especially when consider the special mobile apps designed to support these platforms) rather then searching YouTube. Also, YouTube has just recently become mobile for Smartphone's, which may also play a factor.
As I touched upon prior Facebook and Twitter are such popular platforms (especially in mobile form) that the act of "becoming a fan" of on Facebook or "following" on twitter is a simple an easy way to insure updates of election information and support ones partisan beliefs. 31.4% of active Facebook users have engaged in either action. Another reason for such participation may be in part to the surge of popularity of Facebook specific advertising. In Measuring the Value of Social Media Advertising for TechCrunch, Waulters analyzes the Nielsen and Facebook study. Here, "Engagement Ad's,"which are ads that allow users to “become a fan” of a product or service, generated a 10% ad recall increase while ads with “social context,” which not only allow users to “become a fan” but also show fellow friend users that also became a fan of this product or service, generated a 16% increase. Even more astonishing “Organic Ad Impression,” which are ads that display fellow friend users becoming a fan of a product or service in a users newsfeed, generated a 30% increase. People’s ability to see their friends “becoming fans” increased the popularity of that said company, person, etc.
5.9% of active Facebook users reported to donating to a presidential candidate or party online. Emerging technological advances enable me to believe that if this same question is asked following the 2012 election that we would see a surge in that percent. Political parties as well as Universities and non profit organizations are exploring the possibilities of quick and easy donations via online finding that an individual would be more apt to donate if the processes were as easy as a text or the push of a button sans the involvement of checks.
Please feel free and encouraged to comment on my study!
