NEW YORK — Americans dissatisfied with political sound bites are turning to the Internet for a more complete picture, a study finds.
In a report released Sunday, the Pew Internet and American Life Project said that nearly 30 percent of adults have used the Internet to get unfiltered campaign material — footage of debates, position papers and speech transcripts.
“They want to see the full-blown campaign event. They want to read the speech from beginning to end,” said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew group. “It’s a push back from the sound-bite culture.”
YouTube and other video sites have become more popular. Thirty-five percent of adults watched a political video online in the primary season, compared with 13 percent in the 2004 presidential race.
The study also found that 10 percent of adults have used online hangouts such as Facebook and MySpace for political activity, whether it’s to add a campaign as a friend on their personal profile pages, discover a friend’s political interests or join an online political group.
Video and social networking have grown in general since the last presidential election.
“It is mirroring the broader trends that we see online,” Rainie said.
Pew also found 6 percent of adults have contributed to a campaign using the Internet, compared with 2 percent in 2004.
The study of 2,251 adults, including 1,553 Internet users, was done by phone April 8 to May 11 and has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.
