People Involved In Politics Online Are Influential Opinion Leaders.

Americans who are politically active via Internet are almost seven times more likely than the average American to serve as opinion leaders, according to a new report released by The George Washington University’s Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet (IPDI) today at the National Press Club. The report, Political Influentials Online in the 2004 Presidential Campaign, concludes that candidates, political parties and advocacy groups looking to reach the highest concentration of opinion leaders and political activists should turn to the Internet.

The report dubs the group of Internet-savvy people who visit candidate Web sites, make political contributions online and interact with other political junkies on the Web as “Online Political Citizens (OPCs)”. Political Influentials Online found that 69% of OPCs are “Influentials.”

Influentials are defined by RoperASW executives Ed Keller and Jon Berry in their book, The Influentials, as Americans who “tell their neighbors what to buy, which politicians to support and where to vacation.” According to Keller and Berry, normally 10% of Americans qualify as Influentials. As the report states, “This means that OPCs are nearly seven times more likely than average citizens to serve as opinion leaders among their friends, relatives and colleagues, and are disproportionately likely to exert a ‘multiplier effect’ outward to the public at large.”

“Online Political Citizens are influential Americans who most political organizations have either overlooked or misunderstood,” said Carol Darr, co-author of Political Influentials Online, director of IPDI and associate research professor at GW’s Graduate School of Political Management. “This group has already made a huge impact on the 2004 presidential campaign and OPCs foreshadow a radical change in the nature of American politics.”

Based on the data collected, Darr and Graf estimate that OPCs make up about 7% of the U.S. population. They also find that almost half of OPCs are relative newcomers to American politics; 44% of OPCs have not been politically involved—i.e., working for a campaign, making a campaign donation or attending a rally—prior to the 2004 campaign.

“In general, the media has portrayed the people we call Online Political Citizens as isolated cyber-geeks,” said Joseph Graf, co-author of Political Influentials Online, project director at IPDI and adjunct professor at GW’s School of Media and Public Affairs. “The results of the Political Influentials Online report shatter that stereotype and reframe Online Political Citizens as a group that deserves the attention of the media and the political mainstream.”

Political Influentials Online also funds that OPCs are:

More than two times as likely to have a college degree, have higher incomes, slightly younger and more likely to be white, single and male than the general American public.

Almost five times as likely to have donated money to a candidate or political party in the last three months as the general American public.

Very active through e-mail: 87% receive political e-mail and 66% forward political e-mail to friends or colleagues.
At least five times as likely to have written or called a politician in the past year than the general American public.
Eight times more likely to have attended a political rally, speech or organized protest than the general American public.
More likely to be Democrats than Republicans. (Probably due to the greater activity in the Democratic Party through primary season.)

For more information at http://www.gwnewscenter.org