Poltical activity, the internet and attention to politics

As I read threw "The New Interest Index: Two Decades of American News Preferences" I couldn't help but think of the conclusions made in Grant Reeher's article "Log on, Tune Off? The Complex relationship between Internet Use and Political Activism".

In Reeher, according the Syracuse University study, occasional use of the internet was associated with more political activism while frequent use was associated with the second most activism. At the same time, the News Interest Index showed that "political" news is followed 3rd least after only "tabloid" and "foreign" news.

Although it may be a stretch to say so, I believe that the findings stated in the News Interest Index can help us understand why it is that internet use does not necessarily indicate political activism. I think that this is due to the fact that even while they are on the internet, or involved in any form of news searching, Americans simply don't have a general interest in politics (except maybe around voting season for major elections). It is safe to assume that if Americans are not interested in politics enough to look into the developments and events relating to it, they are less likely to get involved with politics even the slightest bit (interestingly, according to Reeher, the older a member of the population is, the more likely they are to be more politically active. I think that if age was factored into what the American people are interested in, and therefore watch the news about, we might find that the older population is more interested in political news and therefore are more politically active then the younger population).

Furthermore, I believe that it would be in any candidate's best interest to target the "less interested" population with strong and passionate rhetoric in order to influence this population and gain support from a group that would otherwise be uninvolved in the political system.