"All told, the overall size of the political news audience has more than doubled since the 2000 elections," said Aaron Smith, a research specialist for the Pew Internet & American Life Project, in a statement. "As the overall size of the online political news audience has grown, the Internet has taken a front-and-center role within the media environment. Among the entire population, the Internet is now on par with newspapers as a major source of campaign news -- 26% of all adults get most of their election news from the Internet, compared with 28% who get their election news from newspapers -- although television remains the dominant source of political news in this country."

Pew also noted that many online users seem to be forgoing straight news coverage.

The study revealed that one-third of users get their information from Web sites that share their point of view, reported Smith. That number is up from 26% who said that in a 2004 poll.

Pew said the report is based on the results of a telephone poll of 2,254 American adults by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. The poll was conducted between November 20 to December 4, 2008.