Lee Rainie gave a keynote address about the new civic and political landscape to a summit sponsored by the Pew Voter Information Project for state election officials and technology executives who help them. More: http://pewinternet.org/Presentations/2011/Dec/GeekNetNYC.aspx

1. 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

2. Three digital revolutions and
their effects on civic and
political life

3. Digital Revolution 1
Internet (78%) and Broadband at home (62%)
65%
62%

4. Networked creators among internet users
(two-thirds of adults; three-quarters of teens)
• 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.

5. Digital Revolution 2
Social networking – 50% of all adults

6. 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
• Facebook users more trusting
• Facebook users have more close relationships
• Facebook users get more social support
• MySpace users more open to opposing views

7. 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

8. 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
– 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
– 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

9. Social media = “Faster and More Connected”
On the team
Insider info
Truthiness
9

10. Digital Revolution 3
Mobile – 84%
Total U.S. 327.6
population:
315.5 million

11. 35% own “smartphones”

12. Mobile internet connectors – 63% adults
Wireless internet users
70
65
63
60
59
55
57
54
50
45
40
35
37
30
Nov-08 May-09 Nov-09 May-10 Nov-10 May-11

13. The emergence of mobile
politics in 2010

14. 26% of adults used
cell phones for
political purposes in
2010
Internet and Politics 3/9/2011 15

15. Mobile politics - 26% of adults used cell
phones for political purposes in 2010
• 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 16

16. No clear partisan splits—age is the
defining difference in mobile political
use
Internet and Politics 17

17. Landscape change - 1
The contours
of civic
space for
groups

18. Landscape change - 2
The contours
of civic
information

19. What’s ahead in mobile

20. Expectation for … value of … real-time
info and just-in-time search

21. Tablet mania: Semi-post PC world

22. Deeper integration of mobile and social –
sharing/mindcasting/life logging

23. Next social apps: Free
texting, instant messaging, video
calling

24. Search for pix, videos:
Facial, object, landscape recognition
http://blog.oxagile.com/tag/google-goggles/

25. Voice interface

26. Mobile device as wallet and
authenticator (NFC)

27. Rise of location services and
context awareness
Fodor’s Personal
Vacation Assistant

28. Augmented reality: Packing info into
real-world experiences

29. Big data: Feedback and analytics

30. Gamification

31. 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?

32. Your map is wrong !!!

33. Thank you!