Apparently politics and internet are a match made in heaven, as more people use this medium to find out more about their favorite candidates. According to Mediapost.com, a new study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project has shown that almost half of all Americans have accessed the internet or used text-messaging in order to watch news and share their opinions about this year’s presidential race.

The study showed that 46% of Americans have chosen one or the other to keep up with what’s happening in politics.

Lee Rainie, the director of the Project said that this campaign had more online activity than the one from 2004.

“It's very striking to us that already in this campaign we're a level of activity online ahead of what was taking place at the end of the 2004 race,” said Rainie, according to Mediapost.com. The survey found that 35% of Americans have watched online political videos and 10% used MySpace or Facebook for their information. The videos shown on the internet are complete and also uncensored. The press or the television usually filters the information as they don’t have enough space or time to make a detailed description of what is happening. They have to contract the information while the internet doesn’t have that kind of restrictions.

“Now, they [candidates] have a chance to have their story consumed unfiltered by people who are really into the campaign,” said Rainie.

Almost 40% of African-Americans check the political news online and 50% of voters under 30 use the internet to gather information regarding candidates and also to express their opinion: 11% posted someone’s comments about the race; 5% posted their own analysis; 6% gave money to support a candidate or campaign.

And guess who the most popular candidate on the internet is: Barack Obama.

“Democrats and Obama backers are more in evidence on the Internet than backers of other candidates or parties,” stated the Pew report.

Although the internet has become very popular over the years, not all Americans think that it is a reliable medium. 60% of Internet users think that the internet gives wrong information.

The Pew findings were based on a poll of 2,251 U.S. adults between April 8 and May 11, reported Mediapost.com.