Survey Says: Obama Supporters Still Fired Up

I have noticed a decline of readers since the end of the campaign, but overall, the campaign has netted tens of thousands of people, many who've never participated in politics before (myself included) who still want to be engaged in government.
Visit change.gov and check out the number of people participating. A new Pew study also says people are in it for the long haul.

WaPo: "Well, people are still fired up and ready to go," he continues. "What's next?"

Therein lies the challenge for the Obama White House. His online team might have written the playbook on leveraging the Internet to campaign victory, building a grassroots network on My.BarackObama.com, amassing a record amount of online donations and collecting an e-mail list of more than 13 million addresses, by far the biggest in Washington.

Like Johnson, many of those people aren't going away. A survey released yesterday by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 51 percent of online Obama supporters expect to get e-mail, text messages or other communications from the new administration.

But how will all that online energy be channeled from campaigning into governing?

Some of the Pew study findings:

62% of Obama voters expect that they will ask others to support the policies of the
new administration over the next year. Among Obama voters who were engaged online during the campaign, 25% expect to support the administration’s agenda by reaching out to others online.
46% of Obama voters and 33% of McCain voters expect to hear directly from their candidate or party leaders over the next year. Fully 51% of online Obama supporters expect some kind of ongoing communication from the new administration—34% of Obama-supporting email users expect email communication, 37% of social network site users expect SNS updates, and 11% of phone texters expect to receive text
messages from the new administration.
27% of wired Obama voters have gone online to learn about or get involved with the presidential transition process.1 Nine percent of online McCain voters have visited websites hoping to rebuild the GOP or elect conservative candidates in the future.

Summary of the study from CQ:

The survey of 2,254 adults, conducted between Nov. 22 and Dec. 4, was designed to take stock of a base consisting of a disproportionately high number of first-time and minority voters, as well as individuals under the age of 30. Many such individuals have been underrepresented in political polls and are more likely to get their news from the Internet, late-night comedy shows, or social networking sites than newspapers or network evening news programs.

A total of 1,591 respondents in the sample identified themselves as Internet users.

The survey found 33 percent of respondents who used the Internet for election news and voted for Obama have gone online to track or discuss the transition process. Only 4 percent of Obama supporters who use the Internet but were not politically engaged online have done the same.

A total of 51 percent of online Obama supporters expect some kind of ongoing communication from the new administration, either in the form of e-mail, text messages or appeals through social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook.

And 27 percent of wired Obama voters said they have used the Internet to learn about or get personally involved in the transition process, either by submitting questions and advice via interactive features or applying for a job with the incoming administration. Only 9 percent of online supporters of Republican presidential nominee John McCain reported visiting Web sites aimed at rebuilding the GOP or building support for future campaigns.