U.S. Political Campaign Discourse Explodes Online

The Web is magnifying the influence of TV's Jon Stewart and a host of other commentators, engaging the American public like never before

by Heather Green

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In the days after Sarah Palin was nominated as the Republican Vice-Presidential candidate, the Web was rife with content focused on the Alaska governor. One of the most piquant—and widely viewed—video clips came from The Daily Show. In it, host Jon Stewart highlighted Palin doublespeak by conservative pundits. He showed, for instance, a clip of Bill O'Reilly calling the pregnancy of Palin's teen daughter a private issue just months after the Fox News commentator had lambasted actress Jamie Lynn Spears' parents for allowing their 16-year-old to get pregnant. "See, see what happens with the opinions on teen pregnancy is that they gestate over a period of a few months," Stewart quipped. The video took off online, racking up 4.2 million views, a record for The Daily Show's site.

The rapid dissemination of the Stewart clip underscores how the Internet is helping to broaden the influence of commentators, comedians, bloggers, and pundits in a year when the public can't get enough information about the Presidential election. On cable, The Daily Show is drawing its highest ratings ever, luring 1.9 million viewers each night of the week of Sept. 15, according to TV ratings service Nielsen Media Research. But the show's Web site is growing in lockstep; 850,000 people visited the site that week, putting it on track for its biggest month ever. Traffic has tripled in the past year.

Proactive News Consumers

Some credit for the exploding online popularity of The Daily Show goes to a decision by Viacom's (VIA) Comedy Central to make all Daily Show content available free on the Web—amid an ongoing battle with Google (GOOG) over illegally posted clips on YouTube. It also doesn't hurt that Stewart often offers what viewers consider an entertaining and enlightening take on the twists and turns of a dramatic election season. "This is an election without any road map," says Erik Flannigan, executive vice-president for digital media at MTV Networks Entertainment Group, which runs the Daily Show site. "Jon's reaction has been the one you want to see, and people want to react to the reaction."

The Daily Show is also tapping into a more fundamental shift in how people follow news. Thanks to the power of the Internet, people are no longer merely consuming news in a passive way (as in, "tell me a story"), but going out and looking for it proactively ("answer my question"), explains Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

The notion that the Internet is helping people take a more active role in digging out the news is not novel. What's different this election cycle is the size of the audience and the extent of their involvement; they're not just actively seeking a wide variety of news outlets, but quickly aggregating, posting, and disseminating must-read items, and then entering into a public discourse with pundits, editors, and each other on the most pressing issues of the day. "The ease with which you can go to the site, see this stuff, and comment on it, that's essentially the engine that's driving this," Flannigan says.

Who'd a Thunk It: The People Become Election Players

According to a Pew Research Center survey released in mid-June, about 40% of Americans have gone online to get political news, up from 31% in 2004, and 16% in 2000. They're reading more news and blogs and watching more videos, too. About 35% of Americans have watched political videos, compared with 13% in 2004. But they're not simply swallowing pundits' take on events. They're actively doing their own fact-checking and searching out the direct sources of information. About 39% have gone online to read or watch unfiltered campaign material, such as debates, speeches, and position papers.