Only about half of American adults believe elections are fair and open, and large majorities of Americans express skepticism about big money in politics and favor disclosure of donations. However, as the Senate considers President Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, the public offers mixed signals about […] Read more »
With Russia Claims, Clapper Crosses a Line
… James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence, claimed the Russians didn’t just meddle in U.S. politics, but actually tipped the election to Donald Trump. Our top intelligence officials are given extraordinary powers to keep the country safe, but with that power comes an obligation to use it responsibly, […] Read more »
How the Math Men Overthrew the Mad Men
Once, Mad Men ruled advertising. They’ve now been eclipsed by Math Men—the engineers and data scientists whose province is machines, algorithms, pureed data, and artificial intelligence. … In the advertising world, Big Data is the Holy Grail, because it enables marketers to target messages to individuals rather than general groups, […] Read more »
Meeting Middle Americans and Then Trying to Sell Them Stuff
… Donald J. Trump’s victory came as a surprise to a number of advertisers, spurring soul-searching questions about how well they understood Americans who do not live in coastal cities and what the sharp political polarization in the country meant for the messages they create. When HP marketers met to […] Read more »
Partisan Politics Drives Americans’ Attitudes On Surveillance
Today, the Annenberg School for Communication released a report entitled “Divided We Feel: Partisan Politics Drive Americans’ Emotions Regarding Surveillance of Low-Income Populations.” It is the first national survey that examines Americans’ emotional responses to surveillance practices that disproportionately affect low-income populations. In the US, low-income individuals and people of […] Read more »
‘I Was Trump Before Trump Was Trump’
Don Blankenship likes to believe he knows something about rough justice and who deserves it. “We don’t need to investigate our president. We need to arrest Hillary,” one of his campaign ads proclaims, mimicking President Trump’s crude 2016 rallying cry, “Lock her up!” … In Republican races across the country, […] Read more »