Reuters study looks at the social media general election

A new study from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) reveals the impact of social media on May’s general election.

The study, written by Nic Newman, former Future Media Controller of Journalism at the BBC and current Visiting Fellow at the RISJ, found that 18-24 year olds engaged in ‘extremely high’ levels of social media activity during the general election.

This age group predominantly used Facebook, with a massive 97% of them using the site during the election period.

The survey also showed that 18-24 year olds “receive most of their political information online and rarely read a printed newspaper or listened to radio for information.”

And Newman found that Twitter has cemented its place as a ‘core communication tool’ amongst political and media circles, with 600 political candidates engaging with Twitter during the campaign, alongside hundreds of journalists and party workers.

The RISJ polled around 200 18-24 year olds between 3 and 10 May 2010 in an online survey.

It said that the the poll sought to indicate trends and does not claim to be statistically representative, although it reflects the findings of a nationwide YouGov survey, in which a quarter of 18-24 year olds said they had used social networks to comment on the general election, and 81% of them expressed an interest in the election campaign.