The new landscape for civics and politics
(especially in mobile)
Voting Information Technology Summit - GeekNetNYC
December 1, 2011
Lee Rainie: Director, Pew Internet Project
Email: Lrainie@pewinternet.org
Twitter: @Lrainie
PewInternet.org
Three digital revolutions and
their effects on civic and
political life
Digital Revolution 1
Internet (78%) and Broadband at home (62%)
65%
62%
Networked creators among internet users
(two-thirds of adults; three-quarters of teens)
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65% are social networking site users
55% share photos
37% contribute rankings and ratings
33% create content tags
30% share personal creations
26% post comments on sites and blogs
15% have personal website
15% are content remixers
14% are bloggers
13% use Twitter
6% location services – 9% allow location
awareness from social media – 23% maps etc.
Digital Revolution 2
Social networking – 50% of all adults
SNS and the social/civic world
• Social media users more tied to civic groups and
their internet use bonds them more deeply to
group activities
• Social media users for politics/civics are more
socio-economically diverse !!!
• Facebook users more politically engaged
– Political participation, voting, mobilizing friends
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Facebook users more trusting
Facebook users have more close relationships
Facebook users get more social support
MySpace users more open to opposing views
2008 vs. 2010 in social media politics
2008: “Hey Dad, look at my profile on
BarackObama.com”
2010: “Son, I need you to get off the
computer so I can check for Facebook
updates from the Tea Party Patriots”
Internet and Politics
7
How voters used social networking
sites and Twitter in 2010
• 35% of social networking site users (21% of online adults) used these
sites for political reasons in 2010
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Discover who friends voted for (18%)
Get campaign/candidate info (14%)
Post content related to campaign (13%)
Friend a candidate or other political group (11%)
Join a political group or cause (10%)
Start their own political group or cause (2%)
• 28% of Twitter users (2% of online adults) used Twitter politically in 2010
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Get candidate/campaign info (16%)
Follow election results in real time (12%)
Follow a candidate or other political group (11%)
Include links to political content in their own tweets (9%)
Internet and Politics
3/9/2011
8
Social media = “Faster and More Connected”
On the team
Insider info
Truthiness
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Digital Revolution 3
Mobile – 84%
Total U.S.
population:
315.5 million
327.6
35% own “smartphones”
Mobile internet connectors – 63% adults
Wireless internet users
70
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30
Nov-08
May-09
Nov-09
May-10
Nov-10
May-11
The emergence of mobile
politics in 2010
26% of adults used
cell phones for
political purposes in
2010
Internet and Politics
3/9/2011
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Mobile politics - 26% of adults used cell
phones for political purposes in 2010
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14% used their cell phones to tell others that they voted
12% used their cell phones to keep up with political news
10% sent text messages relating to the election
6% used their cells to let others know about conditions at
their local voting stations on election day
4% used their phones to monitor results on election night
3% used their cells to shoot/share photos/videos about
election
1% used a cell-phone app that provided updates about
election news
1% contributed money by text message
Internet and Politics
3/9/2011
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No clear partisan splits—age is the
defining difference in mobile political
use
Internet and Politics
17
Landscape change - 1
The contours
of civic
space for
groups
Landscape change - 2
The contours
of civic
information
What’s ahead in mobile
Expectation for … value of … real-time
info and just-in-time search
Tablet mania: Semi-post PC world
Deeper integration of mobile and social –
sharing/mindcasting/life logging
Next social apps: Free texting,
instant messaging, video calling
Search for pix, videos: Facial, object,
landscape recognition
http://blog.oxagile.com/tag/google-goggles/
Voice interface
Mobile device as wallet and
authenticator (NFC)
Rise of location services and
context awareness
Fodor’s Personal
Vacation Assistant
Augmented reality: Packing info into
real-world experiences
Big data: Feedback and analytics
Gamification
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Questions to ponder: How do you
account for and address…
Digital and civic divides? (the early
adopter problem)
Different audiences and needs on
different platforms?
Differing attention spans?
Your “close-up” moments?
Privacy concerns and data breaches?
Your map is wrong !!!
Thank you!