The document discusses the use of social media in the 2012 US election campaigns. It finds that while both major parties are using social media for messaging, data collection, and voter engagement, social media is not playing as large a role as in 2008. Young voters in particular are not relying much on social media for election news. Reasons cited include the one-way communication on social media rather than interactivity, continued dominance of traditional forms of contact, and voter privacy concerns about data collection.