USG.5.3

=Describe how citizens can monitor and influence local, state and national government as individuals and members of interests groups.=


 * See AP Government page on Interest Groups and PACs**

Congressional members are increasingly using social media to communicate with constituents.
 * [|80 percent of the members of the 112th Congress have linked their Facebook or Twitter pages] to their congressional website, according to a 2011 study from the Congressional Management Foundation.

[[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Twitter_Town_Hall-Dorsey_Obama.png width="395" height="260" align="right" caption="Barack Obama at Twitter Town Hall in July 2011"]]
Click here for a [|visualization of the Facebook and Twitter networks of selected Massachusetts political figures.]

Visit[| Facebook on Congress]to review how Congressional members are using social media.

[|How People Get Local News and Information in Different Communities] from the Pew Internet & American Life Project (September 2012) reports that Americans in all sections of the society have a strong interest in news and public affairs, but they gain that information in different ways:
 * Urban Residents tend to get news and information from a range of digital resources, including Internet searches, blogs, Twitter and television station and newspaper websites.
 * Suburban Residents rely more on radio and television for breaking news and the weather.
 * Small Town and Rural Residents use more traditional media such as newspapers and television.

To examine the votes of members of the Massachusetts House and Senate, see [|2011-2012 Roll Call Votes]from the organization Progressive Massachusetts. This site shows whether a legislator took a progressive or non-progressive position on a issue up for vote.

Click here to learn about the [|Citizens' Initiative Review Commission](CIRC) in Oregon. Funded by contributions from charitable organizations and individual donors, this organization consists of a group of voters who examine statewide ballot measures, consider the merits of the proposals, and prepare and publish a “citizens’ statement” highlighting their findings. The state publishes this review in an official voter information pamphlet that is mailed to every voting household before an election.