News Source

The technology blog, TechCrunch is running a story entitled, "New Data Confirms Growing Influence of Internet on Politics, But Not Quite the Deciding Factor." The article begins, "Some new data from the Pew Research Center puts some numbers around the growing influence of the Internet on political campaigns. None of this is too surprising, but it quantifies what we already know: that the Internet is becoming more important in political campaigns, especially among younger people. Each election, the Internet grows stronger and stronger. This data suggests that in 2008 the Internet may still not be the deciding medium in the election, but it certainly points to that being the case in 2012. Here are some tables from the report, which is based on a survey of 1,430 adults in the U.S."

Read the Article!!

Discussion Starters for Younger Children

• Ask your students if they've ever wanted a toy because a friend had the toy. What was the toy? Why did students want to own this toy themselves, couldn't they just play with the toy at their friend's house? Do students think that adults ever want something because somebody else has it? Why/why not?
• Have your students ever learned something on the Internet? What did they learn? Do students think that they can trust something just because it is on the Internet? Why/why not? Have students ever learned something from television? What did they learn? Have students learned more from the Internet or from television? Why have they learned more from one source than another?
• If students could look on the Internet to learn one new thing, what would they like to learn? Why would they like to learn this? How would they start looking for this information?
• Do students think that their parents learned things from the Internet when they were children? Why/why not? How do students think that their parents learned things when they wanted to learn? Challenge students to ask their parents how they learned things when they were kids. What one thing do parents remember learning?

Discussion Starters for Older Students

• Vocabulary terms to discuss: Quantifies; Respondent; Information; and, "Deciding Factor".
• Challenge students to consider the differences between the kinds of things that can be learned online and the kinds of things that can be learned from watching television. In what ways do students think that the Internet has changed television news? In what ways has television influenced the Internet? (Students might think of such sites as YouTube and MSNBC.com.
• Challenge students to explain why younger generations might glean more information from the Internet than older generations. In what other ways are generations different from one another? How do students think that their children will learn most of their information? In what ways will the Internet be different in twenty five years?
• Challenge students to imagine that they were running for political office. In what innovative ways might they use the Internet to help them appeal to voters? Why would they use the Internet in this way?