Nearly half of all Americans have used the Net, e-mail or cell-phone text messaging to get news about the 2008 presidential campaign, share their views, and mobilize others, according to the Pew World Wide Web and American Life Project.

The proportion of Americans going online to get political news or knowledge on a typical day at the tail end of the primary season has more than doubled since a comparable point in the 2004 race — from eight percent of all adults in spring 2004 to 17 percent in spring 2008.

“The World Wide Web is allowing humans to learn and share their interest in the political realm in a way that wasn’t available 10 years ago or 20 years ago,” said Pew World Wide Web project research specialist Aaron Smith, an author of the report.

The Rise of Young Voters

The poll found, among other things, that younger voters are among the most active and intense Web users. Young voters

are helping define the online political debate — 12 percent of online 18-to-29-year-olds have posted their own political commentary or writing to an online newsgroup, Web site, or blog. Led by young voters, Democrats and Obama supporters have taken the lead in their use of online tools.

These online voters are more likely to support Democrat Barack Obama, Pew revealed, and that means his partisans were significantly ahead of Hillary Clinton’s supporters online in the Democratic race. What’s more, the survey showed, Obama backers have a higher profile in some online areas than supporters of Republican John McCain.

Using Social Media

Three online activities became particularly prominent as the presidential primary campaigns progressed: First, 35 percent of Americans say they have watched online political videos — a figure that nearly triples the reading the Pew project got in the 2004 race.

Second, 10 percent say they have used social-networking sites such as Facebook…

Orginal post by Top Tech News