Sophomore Conor Kendrick doesn’t just use his Facebook profile for sending messages to friends and displaying his hobbies of paintball and snowboarding, he also uses it be a part of the political process.

Under a picture of the red-haired twenty-year-old student cradling a baby on his Facebook page, is a list of politicians he supports – former presidential nominee Mitt Romney and Illinois senate hopeful Mike Psak.

On his Facebook page, Kendrick’s says, ‘GOP ALL THE WAY BABY!!!!’ in response to an ABC News poll question asking if he would vote for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama if John McCain were the Republican nominee.

Videos of former House speaker, Newt Gingrich are posted on his profile along with photos of him standing beside political figures such as U.S Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

Many students are using Facebook now to show their friends which politicians they support and what issues are important to them.

Montana Miller, assistant professor in the areas of youth culture and Internet communities, says students can influence their friends by participating politically on the site.

If a student sees one of their friends that they respect is supporting a certain politician, they may look into that candidate more or associate the candidate with that friend, Miller said.

When Miller sees Hillary Clinton she associates her with a former student who works for Clinton’s campaign and gives updates from the campaign trail on her Facebook page.

Obama has the most supporters on the Web site with over 648,000, with his Democratic rival Clinton far behind him at over 125,000.

Texas congressman Ron Paul leads the GOP field with over 84,000 supporters, while McCain has the support of over 76,000 Facebook users.

The Internet has expanded candidates campaigning territory. Candidates have their own Web sites, profiles on Facebook, MySpace and videos on YouTube.

Not all students use these Web sites to follow politics like Kendrick though.

Junior Brittany McCann doesn’t like all the negative campaigning and bashing that politicians do.

‘I’ve just never been interested in politics,’ McCann said. ‘I should, but I’m not.’

With all the political information on the Internet there are many ways students can get more politically informed on the candidates and issues.

Once students have found a candidate or issue they are passionate about they can use the Internet to help campaign.

Senior Mark Ingles said many candidates use their Web site as a place where supporters can publicize events they are holding in support of the candidate.

Obama has a place on his Web site called my.BarackObama.com, where people can post events they are holding for Obama and people can search for the events in their area. Currently, there are 113 events scheduled within 100 miles of Bowling Green in support of Obama.

One candidate whose coverage has benefited greatly from his passionate Internet constituency is Ron Paul, Miller said.

‘He doesn’t get a lot of attention from the traditional media but I’m bombarded with information on him through the Facebook site of a student,’ Miller said. ‘Most of the information I’ve heard about him [Paul] is through his [the student’s] Facebook.’

It isn’t clear whether popularity on the site will translate into votes.

Despite Paul being the leading GOP candidate on Facebook he only has collected sixteen delegates so far. Facebook has partnered with ABC News for election coverage, allowing people to answer poll questions and leave their comments.

Kendrick participates in the polls as a way to get his voice heard and to engage in a healthy debate on the candidates or issues with others, he said.

Junior Megan Sutherland said Facebook can be a good tool to help learn about politics but just joining a Facebook group doesn’t mean you are politically involved.

‘Facebook is a good place to post stuff and it can give you access to new knowledge,’ Sutherland said. ‘It can be used as a new avenue to get politically involved.’

Another way for students to get informed about political issues is to seek out news sites with different points of view, said Jim Foust, associate professor of journalism.

Foust said, if students watch CNN all day and then go online to get their news from CNN.com, they will see a lot of the same news and miss out what other news organizations are covering.

‘There is lots of really good information out there that was not available before,’ Foust said. ‘It just takes some time and effort to find good stuff.’

Sutherland seeks out international news to see what stories are making headlines in other countries and the world’s perspective on the same issues being discussed in America.

Johnpilger.com is a favorite Web site of Sutherland’s because the Australian journalist posts links of articles from many different countries he travels to, such as Iraq and Palestine.

Joshua Atkinson, assistant professor of interpersonal communication, teaches a course on political campaign communication and said he doesn’t think candidates are utilizing all the interactive technology they can be.

‘They use sites as an online flyer or commercial,’ Atkinson said.

Web sites run by supporters and other political organizations are making the campaign trail more interactive, he said.

Sites like BarelyPolitical.com and IndyMedia.org are taking advantage of interactivity, said Atkinson.

BarelyPolitical.com is the Web site that created the ‘Obama Girl’ video that became a YouTube favorite with young people.

Atkinson said, the site creates original music videos and other political content to create a hip young image for politics, instead of one of old stodgy politicians.

Indymedia.com is a site that allows people to post their own news stories on the Web site, letting the user become active by writing stories for them.

Whether all the information available to students and the political interactivity on social networking will increase young voter turnout is unclear now, Foust said.

Discussing Facebook’s impact on election participation, Foust said ‘I still think it’s too early to tell. We know it is important but not sure how it’s going to work yet.’

HOW TO USE THE INTERNET TO BECOME POLITICALLY ACTIVE ‘amp; INFORMED

Use Facebook to show your support for candidates and issues. Post videos and news articles on Facebook. Participate in political polls on sites, such as Facebook. Use the internet to find fellow supporters and create rallies in your hometown. Use the web to find political news. When looking for news, use many different sites to make sure your information is accurate. Write your own stories and post them on sites like IndyMedia.org.