Mixed reactions to use of the Internet for Advocacy

Congressional Leaders prefer regular mail to email – but look to web sites for background information.

Email is a powerful outreach tool for Internet activism, but we’ve
long maintained that it is not advisable to encourage the use of
email to communicate with elected officials. A recent survey by the
Internet consulting firm Mindshare confirms this, at least with
regard to Congress.

Mindshare surveyed more than 230 individuals who work on Capitol Hill
or for the Bush administration, or are considered opinion leaders in
Washington, D.C. One of the key findings of the study was that by a
margin of more than 5 to 1, Congressional offices prefer that
constituents contact them via regular mail instead of email. Another
key finding was that Congressional staff and other national opinion
leaders look for position papers, tutorials and other reports on
public affairs web sites to familiarize themselves with issues and
the impact of specific issues on their constituents.

See http://www.mindshare.net/news//2002-05-17.13.phtml for a press
release about the study and information on how to obtain a copy.