ABSTRACT
In the 2008 elections, citizen commentary on political campaigns became more widespread than ever before. Political bloggers expounded on candidate strategy and policy, average citizens were able to post their own comments on newspaper stories even at some of the country’s biggest media outlets, and social networking sites offered quick and easy routes to share political thoughts with the world (or at least the world as defined by your own limited readership). Not only was it relatively easy to create and maintain a political blog oneself, but the opportunities blogs offered for individuals to simply add their voice to the cacophony of others made this type of expressive participation easier than ever. And people took advantage of these opportunities: more and more people reported turning to political blogs and social networking sites for campaign information, especially younger adults (Pew, 2008).
