Media & Society

When he formally enters the 2008 race this week, former Sen. Fred Thompson can behave in all ways like a presidential candidate. But on his "testing the waters" website, I'mwithFred.com, he's already been busy reaching out to supporters.

Now that Fred Thompson has formally announced his candidacy for President, his live campaign can begin to match the vigorous cyberspace campaign he's been running for months. In a follow-up to a July 12 report on the Web sites of the other Presidential hopefuls, PEJ finds that Thompson’s full-service site is among the most sophisticated of anyone running--even before he had declared.

Campaign swag and the political network effects of the internet

Pew Internet, Pew Research, and McKinsey analysts all come to similar conclusions: the online news space is active and ripe for innovation.

Despite some criticisms of the format, why are the major GOP candidates wary of the YouTube debates?

Summary of Findings The 2008 presidential campaign remained a top tier news story last week both in terms of coverage and public interest. The campaign has been one of the top five most covered news stories for much of the year, and public interest has remained fairly consistent. This past week, the national news media […]

View a recap of Monday's presidential debate.

Tuesday night's Democratic debate was widely anticipated for its groundbreaking format. Candidates took on a host of issues asked by citizens via YouTube videos; what follows is an analysis of the format and major themes of the debate as compared with public opinion data.

The presidential hopefuls are using their web sites for unprecedented two-way communication with citizens. But what are voters learning here? Is it more than a way to bypass the media? A new PEJ study of 19 campaign sites finds Democrats are more interactive, Republicans are more likely to talk about “values,” and neither wants to talk about ideology.

Summary of Findings Short videos produced for the internet are becoming an important component of campaign news. In some cases, candidates themselves are producing videos and releasing them on their campaign websites. Candidates also are seeing their own gaffes or embarrassing moments packaged in a brief video and put up on the web for all […]