Those are among the conclusions drawn in a report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project and the Pew Research Center for The People & The Press. Some 75 million Americans, or 37 percent of the total adult population and 61 percent of online Americans, used the Internet to get political news and information, Pew reports.

Web Eclipses Radio

The results indicate that the number of online political news consumers grew dramatically from 18 percent of the U.S. population in 2000 to 29 percent in 2004. And the number who cited the Internet as one of their primary sources of news about the presidential campaign rose to 18 percent in 2004 from 11 percent in 2000.

An estimated 52 percent of U.S. Internet users, or about 63 million people, said they went online to get news or information about the 2004 elections; 35 percent said they used e-mail to discuss politics; and 11 percent went online to donate money, volunteer, or learn about political events to attend.

"For the first time the Internet has eclipsed radio as a primary source of campaign news," said John Horrigan, an author of the Pew study. "We saw a sixfold increase in the number of people relying on the Internet as a main source for political news when compared to the 1996-2004 period.

Convenience Is Key

The convenience of finding information on Web, as opposed to buying and reading a newspaper, was the primary motivation for those following campaign news, especially broadband customers, Horrigan told NewsFactor.

However, more than half said they liked using the Internet because they could get information online that was not available elsewhere and because they were not geting all the information they needed from traditional news sources.

Pew reports that television ranked first as the primary source of presidential campaign news among registered voters (78 percent), followed by newspapers (39 percent), the Internet (18 percent), radio (17 percent) and magazines (3 percent). Poll respondents were allowed to give more than one response.

Candidates Seek New Connections

As for the most popular sources for online campaign information, Horrigan said mainstream media outlets like CNN, the New York Times and ABC News dominated, followed by the news pages of online services, such as AOL and Yahoo.

John Kerry's camp was busier online than George Bush's backers in 2004, Horrigan said, indicating that Bush's supporters were quicker in making up their minds about the presidential race. The number of people making political contributions online doubled from 2000 to 4 million, he added.

"Both camps were very active on the Internet in their efforts to reach supporters," he said.