Voters Increasingly Turn to Social Media for Political News

Mobile and social media are playing a larger role in how voters get political information, according to survey results from the Pew Research Center.

The survey, which included phone interviews of 2,003 people 18 and older, indicates that the number of people using cell phones to track political news has doubled for this year’s midterm election. Twenty-eight percent of registered voters tracked campaign coverage on their cell phones, up from 13 percent in 2010.

When broken down by age, 40 percent of those ages 30 to 49 are using their cell phones to track the election; 21 percent also follow on social media.