Some 42% of the Americans surveyed by Pew/Internet for How Americans Get in Touch with Government said they contacted the government by telephone, versus 47% who reached the government electronically by e-mail or Web site. (See Table 7.2.) Perhaps due to the lack of consistency and quality associated with government Web sites, more people preferred to reach the government by phone. According to Horrigan, 40% of Americans reported that the phone was the best way to contact the government, while 24% believed the Internet was better. Even among Internet users who contacted the government, traditional means of reaching the government won out over electronic means. Fifty-five percent of Internet users said they were more likely to turn to the telephone or write a traditional letter; 53% said they preferred to e-mail or visit a Web site. Typically, Americans were more likely to call a government office if the matter was urgent or complex, such as if a passport needed to be renewed on short notice. People used the Internet more frequently to take care of government transactions (e.g., car registration renewal) and to obtain information. (See Table 7.3.)
Having Internet service at home or work increased the likelihood that respondents had contacted the government, according to How Americans Get in Touch with Government. In fact, 72% of Internet users said they had contacted the government sometime in the previous year. Only 23% of offline Americans did so. Part of this trend had to do with the fact that wealthier, highly educated people both used the Internet more and contacted the government more regularly than people with lower incomes and less education.
Why Americans Contact the Government
Table 7.4, taken from How Americans Get in Touch with Government, illustrates the ways Internet users accessed information on government Web sites as of 2003. By far, the most popular activity was searching for information. Two-thirds (66%) of all Internet users reported looking for information from a local, state, or federal Web site in 2003, which represented an increase of 10% (seventeen million people) from 2002. This included searching for everything from a NASA launch timetable to a brochure on local burning laws. Researching official documents, such as U.S. Census statistics, came in second, with 41% of Internet users partaking in this activity. Obtaining recreational or tourist information on such destinations as national parks and monuments was the third most popular activity. Not all experiences with government Web sites, however, were positive. (See Table 7.5.) Of those who used a Web site to contact the government, 33% said that the last time they tried, the government site did not contain the information they needed. Twenty percent felt that site was difficult to navigate, and 18% said they had trouble figuring out where to go on the site.
The Internet has also lent itself to those who want to express their opinions to government officials. Roughly one-third (30%) of Internet users surveyed for How Americans Get in Touch with Government said they had used e-mail to try to change a policy or a politician's vote in 2003. This represented a dramatic increase from 2001, when only 19% of people surveyed had contacted a government official or politician to express a personal opinion. Nearly 15% of those who contacted the government about an issue of policy in 2003 did so because of an environmental issue. Eleven percent said that their message involved education, and another 11% cited tax issues. The
TABLE 7.2
| How people contacted government officials, 2003 | ||
| Method of last contact | Preferred means of contact | |
| n = 1,657 | ||
| SOURCE: John Horrigan, "Means of Contacting Government," in How Americans Get in Touch with Government, Pew Internet and American Life Project, May 24, 2004, http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_E-Gov_Report_0504.pdf (accessed December 11, 2004). Used by permission of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, which bears no responsibility for the interpretations presented or conclusions reached based on analysis of the data. | ||
| Telephone | 42% | 40% |
| Web site | 29 | 24 |
| In person | 20 | 13 |
| 18 | 11 | |
| Letter | 17 | 10 |
TABLE 7.3
| Preferred means of contacting the government, by reason for contact, 2003 | ||||
| Problem was very complex or urgent | Contacted government to solve problem | Contacted government for transaction | Contacted government to get information | |
| n = 1,657 | ||||
| SOURCE: John Horrigan, "Preferred Means of Contacting the Government by Reason for Contact," in How Americans Get in Touch with Government, Pew Internet and American Life Project, May 24, 2004, http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_E-Gov_Report_0504.pdf (accessed December 11, 2004). Used by permission of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, which bears no responsibility for the interpretations presented or conclusions reached based on analysis of the data. | ||||
| Telephone | 46% | 47% | 40% | 41% |
| Web site | 14 | 17 | 30 | 33 |
| In person | 16 | 15 | 15 | 10 |
| 10 | 9 | 6 | 10 | |
| Letter | 11 | 9 | 7 | 4 |
TABLE 7.4
| How Internet users accessed government information, 2003 | |
| N = 1,899 | |
| SOURCE: John Horrigan, "Percent of Internet Users Who Have Ever Done the Following Things Online," in How Americans Get in Touch with Government, Pew Internet and American Life Project, May 24, 2004, http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_E-Gov_Report_0504.pdf (accessed December 11, 2004). Used by permission of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, which bears no responsibility for the interpretations presented or conclusions reached based on analysis of the data. | |
| Look for information from a local, state, or federal government Web site | 66% |
| Research official government documents or statistics | 41 |
| Get recreational or tourist information | 34 |
| Get advice or information from a government agency about a health or safety issue | 28 |
| Send email to local, state, or federal government | 27 |
| Get information about or apply for government benefits | 23 |
Iraq war, health care, and civil rights issues were each the subject of 10% of personal opinion messages.
Online Contacts with State and Local Government
According to Horrigan in How Americans Get in Touch with Government, adults went online more frequently to contact their state government than their local governments or the federal government. Twenty-three percent of those surveyed said that they had been in touch with their local government online, and 37% said they had contacted their state government. As of late 2004, every state government and the District of Columbia had a Web site that contained information on various government agencies, policies, and procedures. Many states allowed residents to complete a few administrative tasks online such as renewing a vehicle registration or obtaining a fishing license. Some states even conducted more complex transactions online. In Washington State, for example, residents could file a formal consumer fraud complaint on the attorney general's Web site. In Washington, D.C., residents or visitors could pay a parking ticket online.
Despite the relatively low number of people contacting municipal governments via the Internet, 80% of local governments had a Web site in 2002, according to Elena Larsen and Lee Rainie in Digital Town Hall (Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project, October 2, 2002). Table 7.6 lists the information presented most on these municipal Web sites. A city staff directory appeared on nearly 78% of municipal Web sites. Seventy-one percent of local government Web sites reported listing both meeting agendas with minutes and city services information.
For municipal governments, e-mail appeared to play a bigger role than the Web. Unlike federal or even state government politicians, many local government leaders have time to answer e-mail personally. In fact, some 82% of online municipal government officials (e.g., mayors and city council members) replied that they used e-mail to
TABLE 7.5
| Problems encountered with government Web sites, 2003 | ||
| Yes | No | |
| n = 480 | ||
| SOURCE: John Horrigan, "Problems Encountered at Government Web Sites," in How Americans Get in Touch with Government, Pew Internet and American Life Project, May 24,2004, http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_E-Gov_Report_0504.pdf (accessed December 11, 2004). Used by permission of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, which bears no responsibility for the interpretations presented or conclusions reached based on analysis of the data. | ||
| Web site didn't have information needed | 33% | 65% |
| Web site was difficult to navigate or figure out | 20 | 79 |
| Had difficulty figuring out what site to go to | 18 | 83 |
| Site had bad or outdated links | 16 | 85 |
| Experienced difficulty downloading forms or instructions | 13 | 86 |
TABLE 7.6
| Features found on municipal Web sites, 2002 | |
| Featured on site | Percent |
| N = 520. | |
| SOURCE: Elana Lawson and Lee Rainie, "The Features on Municipal WebSites," in Digital Town Hall, Pew Internet and American Life Project, October 2, 2004, http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Digital_Town_Hall.pdf (accessed December 11, 2004). Used by permission of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, which bears no responsibility for the interpretations presented or conclusions reached based on analysis of the data. | |
| City staff directory | 78% |
| Meeting agendas with minutes | 71% |
| Information on receiving municipal services | 71% |
| Calendars for meetings/events | 70% |
| City staff directory with email links | 61% |
| Access to zoning/city planning information | 54% |
| Budget/tax information | 41% |
| Municipal forms and applications | 40% |
| Voting information | 34% |
| Information for citizen lobbying | 18% |
communicate with citizens in the October 2002 Pew/Internet report. Of these, roughly two-thirds (60%) did so on a weekly basis, and one-fifth (21%) did so on a daily basis. Some of these officials employed e-mail to actively gain insight into what their constituents thought. Twenty-one percent utilized e-mail to get feedback on a community issue, and 13% reported using e-mail to float new ideas among citizens. For the most part, city officials believed that e-mails from their constituents did have an impact on local government. Seventy-three percent replied that they had a better understanding of community opinion by reading e-mails sent by residents, and 61% agreed that e-mail facilitates the discussion of complex issues. Opinions were mixed among politicians with regards to mass e-mail campaigns designed to sway their opinion on an issue. Roughly 35% of officials surveyed had been the target of mass mailings, and of these, 48% said the mass mailings had not had any persuasive power.
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