Romney, Obama battle on a digital stage

President Barack Obama has a big lead over Republican challenger Mitt Romney in the race to the White House—digitally, at least. A new study out from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism shows that when it comes to using social media, Obama is big-time ahead. Pew puts it this way, “If presidential campaigns are in part contests over which candidate masters changing communications technology, Barack Obama…holds a substantial lead over challenger Mitt Romney.” Obama is nearly four times more active on social media and has a presence on twice as many platforms. And Federal Elections Commission filings show Obama’s camp is not only putting time and energy into a digital strategy, but big money too. According to an analysis from ClickZ of FEC filings, Obama is outspending Romney 4-to-1 online. ClickZ reports that from last spring through June, Obama spent $31 million on digital ads to Romney’s $8.1 million.

But, how much time and money each candidate is spending online isn’t the only story. It’s also about interaction. And as BuzzFeed’s Vincent Harris points out, when it comes to how actively each candidate is being talked about on Facebook, for instance, Romney is the one in the lead. As of Aug. 23, Romney had 1,579,476 people talking about his Facebook page compared with 1,354,550 talking about Obama’s page. “This means that more people are actually interacting with content on Mitt Romney’s page than Barack Obama’s page despite Obama’s having an almost 7-to-1 advantage in total fans over Romney,” Harris writes. And, lest anyone think the digital race won’t be a huge part of the actual race, just look at how the upcoming conventions will be covered. Prime time: not so much; mobile, online and on social media: yes, yes and yes. The Wall Street Journal’s Keach Hagey reports, “This year’s conventions promise to be the most-covered ever online.” Marc Burstein, senior executive producer for special events at ABC News tells the Journal, “We’re back to doing gavel-to-gavel. We’re just not doing it on television.”

• Study: In the Digital Race for President, Obama Has a Clear Lead (PBS MediaShift)

• Online Media Will Star at the Conventions (Wall Street Journal)

• Obama, Romney Big Fans of Social Media—as a Broadcast Platform (AdAge)

• Obama Outspends Romney on Digital Ads 4:1 (ClickZ)

• Romney, Not Obama, Is Winning The Social Media Race (BuzzFeed)

• Obama, DNC spending exceeded donations in July (CBS)

• The Lowest Common Denominator and the 2012 Race for President (New York Times)

• Infographic: How Obama, Romney (and Friends) Are Using Social Media (AdAge)

• Obama campaign more active online, Pew says (CNN)

• Pew report shows Obama more aggressive than Romney in targeting voters online (Washington Post)

• Obama, Romney Aren’t All That Sociable on Social Media (National Journal)

• Obama Far Ahead of Romney in Using Web and Social Media (Storify: Pew)