Communicating with citizens Eighty-two percent of online local officials use email to communicate with citizens. Sixty percent do so at least weekly, and 21% do so every day. Those in larger cities tend to email citizens more frequently. Almost half (49%) of online officials in cities over 150,000 email citizens daily, while only 9% of […]
Comparing email to other kinds of communications We asked officials to tell us how citizens contact them, and what kinds of contact carry the most weight with those who are elected city leaders. Consistent with our anecdotal findings that Americans do not rely heavily on the Internet for local purposes, online officials say citizens are […]
The features on municipal Web sites Municipal officials indicate that incorporation of the Internet into civic affairs is widespread. Eighty percent reported that their city had a Web site. Seventy-one percent said their cities provide their staffs with both Internet and email access, and another 21% provide access to either the Internet or email. The […]
Conclusions Some local governments are taking the lead in bringing the Internet into community life. More local governments have Web sites than Americans are aware of. And local officials are embracing email as a tool in their constituent relations, perhaps to a degree that many of their constituents do not fully appreciate. The scale of […]
Politics is local. The Internet is global. Where do the two meet? The last three years have provided powerful evidence of how the Internet and email have entered national and international political life. Activists used it mobilize interested citizens and to handle the logistics of organizing such mass demonstrations as the 1999 protests at the […]
73% of online college students use the Internet for research more than the library Nearly half email ideas to professors that they wouldn’t dare say in class CHICAGO (September 15, 2002) – The generation that grew up with the personal computer now is heavily wired on campus and relies on the Internet in every dimension […]
Introduction and background By the staff of the Pew Internet & American Life Project The September 11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were the most seismic news events in the Web era. They dominated people’s thoughts and their actions online like no other event before them. One of the most […]
More than two-thirds of Americans (69%) say the government should do everything it can to keep information out of terrorists’ hands, even if that means the public will be deprived of information it needs or wants.