Politics at a click of a mouse
As we jump head-first into the pool of election season, I hope everyone takes note of a recent Pew Research Center study that suggests 24 percent of Americans regularly learn something about the presidential campaign from the Internet.
http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=384
While the study states people also learn about the presidential campaign from areas such as local TV news, cable and nightly network news and daily newspapers, the use of the Internet for political information is gaining in popularity. More people are "coming across" campaign issues while they are online doing something else.
What does this mean for journalists? How about more interactives such as image galleries, audio and videos of speeches/rallies, polls to gauge the public's interest on issues? What about forums to promote dialogues? As the cliche goes, the possibilities are endless.
Bottom line: we, as journalists, need to tap into the public's consciousness and use multimedia to offer new ways of telling stories.