With more than five months remaining before the U.S. presidential election, the general campaign period is just dawning. Yet more Americans have already gone online to get political news this year than in all of 2004. To some extent, that fact — reported in the latest Pew Internet & American Life Project survey — can be attributed to a longer-than-expected and sometimes heated campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. However, it is also indicative of the Internet’s growing role in politics.
