"A Facebook message, distributed during the 2010 United States congressional elections, influenced the voting behavior of millions of recipients and their friends," says NPR radio. "New research in the journal Nature highlights the potential of online social networks for shaping real-world behavior on a massive scale. Melissa Block talks to Shankar Vedantam." Listen to the story.
The story also appeared in the New York Times: "A study of millions of Facebook users on Election Day 2010 has found that online social networks can have a measurable if limited effect on voter turnout. The study, published online on Wednesday by the journal Nature, suggests that a special 'get out the vote' message, showing each user pictures of friends who said they had already voted, generated 340,000 additional votes nationwide — whether for Democrats or Republicans, the researchers could not determine." Read more.
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