The majority of respondents have never sent email to their highest government official
(73.1%). 17.7% have sent 1 or 2 email messages. Only 2.5% reported that they cannot send
email to their highest official.
A higher percentage of respondents from Europe reported that they have never sent
email to their highest government official (77.89%) or cannot (15.66%).
There were no noticeable differences between genders for this question.
Slightly more respondents over the age of 50 reported sending more than 3
email messages to their highest government official (8.2%).
For this question, respondents were allowed to choose more than one category and
results show that they get their news and political information from a variety of sources.
The most popular were: local newspapers (62.6%), network television news (58.2%), online news (52.7%), and news TV channels (CNN, C-Span, etc.) (51.4%). The least popular were:
online discussions (9.2%), professional journals (15.4%), and talk radio (24.2%).
A much higher percentage of European respondents reported getting their information
from national newspapers (79.5%) than did US respondents (31.7%). These percentages
were reversed for local newspapers (29.6% Europe, 65.9% US). Also, Europeans reported
less use of news radio and news TV channels, but more use of professional journals.
Females reported a higher use of local newspapers, network TV news, and offline
discussions as their source for news and political information. Males report more use
of national newspapers and electronic news.
Respondents aged 19-25 reported more use of national newspapers (32.2%) and
offline discussions (49.6%) as sources of news and political information. Those
over age 50 report more use of local newspapers, network TV news, and news TV channels.
Respondents between 26 and 50 report the highest use of news radio and electronic news.
Overall, 40.3% of respondents reported that they are more involved with political
issues since coming online. 48.36% reported being equally involved.
Slightly more Europeans report being more involved (42.2%).
More males than females report being more involved with political issues
since coming online (42.2% male, 36.9% female).
More respondents between 19-25 reported being more involved (43.5%) than do other
age groups. The majority of those between 26 and 50 reported being equally involved (52.2%).
More than half of the respondents feel that elected officials don't care what
people like themselves think (59.9%).
There were no differences between US and Europe responses for this question.
A slightly higher percentage of males feel that elected officials do care what
people like themselves think (40.5% male, 37.8% female).
As age increases, more respondents feel that officials do care what people like
themselves think: 36.6% of 19-25 year olds, 39.9% of 26-50 year olds, and 50.2% of those
over 50.
The most popular offline political activies were: discussing political issues
("debate",68.4%), signing a petition (46.8%), and writing/calling government officials
(34.9%). The least popular were: joining a political group (9.9%), volunteering for a party/candidate (10.93%), and attending a rally (17.1%).
US respondents report more activity in each category (execpt "other"), especially writing/calling government officials and discussing political issues. More Europeans report
engaging in "other" political activities.
Differences between genders are small for this question, but slightly more females
than males report discussing political issues and signing petitions.
Respondents over 50 are more active in all areas except attending rallies and
signing petitions.
More than half of respondents over 50 have written or called a
government official in the last year (52.6%) compared to 22.4% of those aged 19-25.
More than a quarter (27.2%) have contributed or solicited money compared to only
16.9% of those aged 26-50 and 6.9% of those aged 19-25.
Over 52.2% of respondents report engaging in some "other" online political activity
that does not fall into any of the given categories. For the categories given, the most
popular online activities were: writing a government official (31.0%), discussing political issues (23.3%), and signing petitions (22.1%).
As with offline activities, Europeans engage in "other" political activities more
than US respondents and less in all other categories.
Males report more activity in all categories except "other".
The percentage of respondents aged 19-25 who take part in online petitions is
more than double the percentage of those over age 50 (30.4% and 13.6% respectively).
Those over age 50 report less activity in the categories given, but more
activity in "other" online activities.
An extremely high percentage of respondents are currently registered to vote (91.9%).
This is not surprising given the high levels of education and income also reported
by survey respondents.
There were no differences between male and female respondents for this question.
Older respondents are somewhat more likely to be registered to vote: 89.9% for 19-25 years old, 94.5% for 26-50 years old, and 96.8% for those over 50 years old.
In this question, the choice "search engines" was included to provide a baseline for
comparing other sites; 65.6% reported visiting search engines frequently.
The most frequently visited sites were: online newspapers (37.9%), CNN (35.9%),
and "other" (26.0%).
Most of the sites specifically listed are geared toward US politics, so as expected,
fewer Europeans reported using them frequently. More Europeans, however, report using online
news frequently (47.6%).
A higher percentage of males reported using search engines (74.5%), online news (41.3%), and CNN (39.0%) frequently. Slightly more females reported using White House documents frequently (11.61%).
Respondents over 50 reported using all of the resources more frequently, except CNN, search engines, and "other". Fewer of those between 19 and 25 years reported using online
news frequently (33.9%).
Over half of the respondents (58.2%) have never used White House electronic
documents. 38.1% have used them occasionally or infrequently. Only 2.1% have used
them frequently.
As we would expect, European respondents report using them less with 69.1%
never having used them compared to 50.9% of US respondents.
More males reported casual use of White House electronic documents with 42.0% having
used documents occasionally or infrequently.
A higher percentage of those aged 19-25 have never accessed White House electronic
documents (59.6%). Those over age 50 report slightly more frequent use.
Approximately 60% of all respondents report having participated in the most
recent local, legislative, and national elections.
In the US, the highest participation rate is in national elections (72.5%) while
in Europe, the highest rate is in local elections (59.1%).
For local and legislative elections, there were no differences between males and
females.
Females reported a slightly higher participation rate for national elections:
63.3% for females, 58.25% for males.
Across all voting categories, the participation rate increased dramatically
with age. The age 19-25 respondents averaged 45.8% participation, 26-50 averaged 69.6%,
and over 50 averaged 81.6%.