The 2008 Presidential Campaign Online â€" Information Effects and Political Knowledge.

The 2008 Presidential campaign has helped to put Internet politics on the forefront of the political debate. This paper investigates the effects of new media technologies, and Web 2.0 applications in particular, on information gathering, political learning and political knowledge during the 2008 presidential campaign. I will utilize data from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press and the Pew Internet & American Life project to test for an independent effect of these technologies, in particular YouTube and online video, as well as social networking sites on respondents’ levels of political information as compared to traditional media outlets while controlling for standard predictors with a particular focus on young voters. Furthermore, this paper will include a comparison of these results with previous presidential elections in 2000 and 2004 to help better understand the consequences Web 2.0 technologies continue to have in shaping political information gathering and citizens’ political knowledge. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]