In the world of political news, the Internet has hit the mainstream.

A new study from the Pew Research Center found that twice as many Americans use the Internet to follow this year&jos39;s presidential campaign than in 2004.

A new study from the Pew Research Center found that twice as many Americans use the Internet to follow this year&jos39;s presidential campaign than in 2004.
It also found that more young people get their campaign news from the Web than from any other source. Pew reported that 42 percent of respondents between ages 18 and 29 routinely get information about the campaign from the Web, up from 20 percent in 2004.

Social networking and online video sites represented a major driver of the Internet&jos39;s role in campaign coverage among young people, the research group found.
Pew reported a similar jump when looking at Americans of all ages. Twenty-four percent of respondents said that they frequently use the Internet to get information about the campaign, compared with 13 percent in 2004 and just 9 percent in 2000.

The surge in Internet usage predictably came at the expense of other media.
For instance, the proportion of Americans who said they regularly get information about the campaign from local and nightly TV news broadcasts declined 2 percent and 3 percent, respectively, from 42 and 35 percent in 2004.

Last year saw a host of initiatives to bring the political conversation to the Web. While there has been considerable skepticism about the legitimacy of the "political Web" in courting the electorate, the Pew study demonstrates its considerable impact in keeping voters informed.

MySpace and MTV teamed to deliver a series of "Presidential Dialogues," where candidates respond to users&jos39; questions in real time. Facebook linked up with ABC News so members can follow and interact with the network&jos39;s embedded campaign reporters. And, of course, there were the two famous CNN/YouTube debates last year.

All of the major candidates have profiles on the social networks, and groups supporting or attacking them attract hundreds of thousands of members. Campaign videos spread virally around YouTube with lightning speed.

Still, more established Web properties dwarf the social networks when it comes to delivering political news. Asked which sites they most frequently visit to learn about the campaign, the greatest proportion of respondents named MSNBC (26 percent), CNN (23 percent) and Yahoo News (22 percent).
In contrast, 3 percent of the total respondents said that they get their campaign news from the Drudge Reports or MySpace; 2 percent cited YouTube as a preferred news source.

Though the social sites&jos39; reach is still marginal in the overall picture, the Pew report found some striking disparities among age groups.
For instance, 37 percent of respondents between the ages of 18 and 24 said that they have used social networking sites to learn about the campaign. Among respondents in their 30s, that figure drops to 4 percent, and down to 1 percent for people ages 40 and older.

Though less striking, the Internet age gap also extends to online video. While 41 percent of respondents under the age of 30 said that they had seen some form of campaign video online, such as a speech, debate or advertisement, just 20 percent of people 30 and older reported watching a campaign video online.