Web Grows As Source of Campaign News

Tuesday, December 5th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) â€” More Americans sought out election news on the Internet this year, but their reliance on candidates' Web sites dropped sharply, a new poll found. Instead, Internet users are turning to the sites of mainstream news organizations.

Nearly one-fifth of Americans said they went online to hunt for campaign news this year, compared with 4 percent in 1996, the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press reported Sunday.

More than four in 10 who gathered campaign information on the Internet said it affected their voting decisions this year. While the number has grown, it is fewer than one in 10 in the overall population.

``The impact of the Net is growing in politics,'' said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project. ``People are getting their political information online, and they wanted to get it at their own convenience, on their own time, in their own way.''

A majority cited convenience as the principal reason for looking to the Internet for campaign news. In Pew's 1996 survey, most said they went online because other news outlets were not providing enough information.

Rainie said users were drawn to the broadening array of information available at the news sites, from previous stories to a wide range of biographical and position databases.

Just over half of election news consumers said they turned to the Web sites of national and local news outlets, while 7 percent said they went mostly to sites that specialize in politics.

More users named CNN as their political Web site of choice than any other.

Meantime, the share of campaign news seekers who primarily used candidate sites fell from 25 percent four years ago to 7 percent. Most visitors to those sites found they were not useful, the survey found.

But campaign news consumers tapped the interactive power of the Internet: A third participated in online surveys, nearly a quarter used e-mail to contact a candidate, 8 percent joined online chats and 5 percent made campaign donations. Republicans took part in such activities at a higher rate than Democrats, the poll found.

Despite the growth, Rainie said the Internet has yet to mature as a source of campaign news.

``We saw a lot of potential on display in this election, and it became, clearly, a more important informational tool,'' he said ``But this was not the 'Net Election' in the same sense that 1960 was the 'TV Election.' It is nowhere near the dominant source of political communication.''

The poll surveyed 8,378 adults by telephone Oct. 10 through Nov. 26. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, larger for subgroups.

Of the total, 4,186 identified themselves as online users, and the margin of error was plus or minus 2 points. The study identified 1,435 election news consumers, and the margin was plus or minus 3 points.

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On the Net:

Pew Research Center for the People and the Press: http://www.people-press.org