For all his negative poll numbers and impeachment-related liabilities, President Trump has a decisive advantage on one key election battleground: the digital campaign. Under the management of Brad Parscale, the Trump re-election machine has devoted millions more than any individual Democrat to increasingly sophisticated microtargeting techniques. … Trump’s operatives have […] Read more »
Whistleblower Explains How Cambridge Analytica Helped Fuel U.S. ‘Insurgency’
When Christopher Wylie first began working for the British behavioral research company SCL Group, the company used data drawn from a number of sources as a means of potentially altering outcomes for their, sometimes military, clients. But over time, Wylie’s mission — and that of the company — expanded. Conservative […] Read more »
The Global Disinformation Order
Although propaganda has always been a part of political discourse, the deep and wide-ranging scope of these campaigns raise critical public interest concerns. Cyber troops’ are defined as government or political party actors tasked with manipulating public opinion online (Bradshaw and Howard 2017a). We comparatively examine the formal organization of […] Read more »
Don’t just poll – research!
Political practitioners too often see polls and focus groups as the automatic choices for political research. Polling tells you about aggregate attitudes. Strategic reliance on polling grew with dependence on television – a medium that used to reach most everyone and so aggregate attitudes and message receptivity made sense. In […] Read more »
How Well Does DFP’s Progressive Issue Model Reflect Vote Choice?
In a recent GQ magazine article, Way to Win co-founder Tory Gavito and DFP co-founder Sean McElwee presented compelling new evidence on the question of whether Democrats should persuade swing voters or galvanize their base to have the best chances of retaking the White House. CONT. Alexander Agadjanian, Data for […] Read more »
Buying a Ticket Out of Iowa – Online
The Iowa caucuses help frame who is a contender for the nomination, which is especially important in such a large Democratic field. Historically, there are “three tickets out of Iowa.” Only once in recent political history has anyone become President without a top-three finish in the Iowa caucuses (although a […] Read more »