Pew
Almost a third of social networkers (28 percent) “post links to political stories or articles for others to read,” according to a new survey of Internet users by Pew’s Internet & American Life Project. The survey looks at how social media and political engagement mix.
Echoing a survey earlier this year that said Democrats and very conservative people use social media to track political news, this new research found that “social media users who are liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans are the most likely to have used social media this way (39% and 34% respectively).”
These findings are based on a phone survey of 1,209 U.S. adults, who responded between July 16 and August 7, 2012.
A couple more interesting findings: College grads are more likely than others to “repost content related to political or social issues that was originally posted by someone else.” And “Liberal Democrats who use social media are particularly likely to use the ‘like’ button — 52% of them have done so and 42% of conservative Republicans have also done so.” Any theories on that one?
Related: Liz Heron, Craig Kanalley, Poynter’s Mallary Tenore and others discuss social media and the 2012 election
