How the Presidential Candidates Use the Web and Social Media

If presidential campaigns are in part contests over which candidate masters changing communications technology, Barack Obama on the eve of the conventions holds a substantial lead over challenger Mitt Romney.

A new study of how the campaigns are using digital tools to talk directly with voters-bypassing the filter of traditional media-finds that the Obama campaign posted nearly four times as much content as the Romney campaign and was active on nearly twice as many platforms. Obama's digital content also engendered more response from the public-twice the number of shares, views and comments of his posts.

Just as John McCain's campaign did four years ago, Romney's campaign has taken steps over the summer to close the digital gap-and now with the announcement of the Romney-Ryan ticket made via the Romney campaign app may take more. The Obama campaign, in turn, has tried to adapt by recently redesigning its website. These are among the findings of a detailed study of the websites of the two campaigns as well as their postings on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube-and the public reaction to that content-conducted by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.

• Obama's campaign has made far more use of direct digital messaging than Romney's.
• The campaign is about the economy, but what that means differs depending on to whom one is listening.
• The economy may have dominated both candidates' digital messaging, but it was not what voters showed the most interest in.
• Neither campaign made much use of the social aspect of social media.
• Campaign websites remain the central hub of digital political messaging.