… Now, I have been pretty clear in these pages that I think polling as a methodology no longer works the way people think. It is a rougher measure and can leave important groups out of the equation. It has value but it also has serious limits: It is far […] Read more »
The Strange Origin Story Of Data Science & Elections
Harvard historian and ‘New Yorker’ writer Jill Lepore tells the story of the Simulmatics Corporation. Founded in 1959, it used a so-called “people machine,” a computer program it claimed could predict the impact of political messages or advertising pitches. At the time, Simulmatics drew condemnation from scholars and political leaders […] Read more »
Americans Support Free Speech Online but Want More Action to Curb Harmful Content
As the COVID-19 crisis continues and the debate rages on between Twitter and President Trump over online content moderation, a new report from Gallup and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation found that Americans understand the threat of misinformation to public health and democracy, and want misleading information […] Read more »
Copying the GOP, Democrats focus on data exchange with Dean leading the charge
Howard Dean has finally come up with a rejoinder to the old Will Rogers line about the Democratic Party and its inability to organize itself properly. “The answer is not to organize ourselves better. The answer is to cooperate better, because we’re never going to have a top-down model. So […] Read more »
Most Oppose Micro-Targeting in Online Political Ads
In the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and Gallup’s latest research, a solid majority of Americans do not want political campaigns to be able to micro-target them through digital ads: 72% say that internet companies should make no information about its users available to political campaigns in order […] Read more »
Trump’s Digital Advantage Is Freaking Out Democratic Strategists
… If you attend an evangelical or a Catholic Church, a women’s rights march or a political rally of any kind, especially in a seriously contested state, the odds are that your cellphone ID number, home address, partisan affiliation and the identifying information of the people around you will be […] Read more »