Lack of standardization among platform political ad policies and products is causing problems for democracy
In the wake of the 2016 Brexit and U.S. presidential elections, the major platform companies including Facebook (and Instagram), Google (and YouTube), and Twitter implemented significant changes in the scope of the products and services they offer as well as their policies for working in institutional politics, especially in the context of digital political advertising. For example, all three companies rolled out verification processes for political advertisers and ad databases for the public. Facebook ended commissions on political ad sales and its “embed” program with campaigns. Google placed restrictions on political microtargeting and Twitter ended political advertising entirely and placed restrictions on what it has named “cause-based” advertising. This paper analyzes the policies and products of platform companies with respect to digital political advertising in the U.S. Our focus is on social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Reddit, and YouTube) and the advertising capabilities that you can access through them, as well as Google search and the Google display
network.
How we define social media engagement shapes relationships between journalists and audiences
Scholarly and pragmatic definitions of the term “engagement” vary drastically. This article attempts to capture the nuances of the term by exploring journalists’ roles on social media where “engagement” is supposed to be particularly prevalent. Using in-depth interviews, we gauge the attitudes of traditional political journalists as well as those who think of themselves as “engagement specialists” about their responsibilities in interactive spaces. In addition, we analyze what kinds of engagement are happening in these spaces, and how citizens’ expectations are being articulated, in terms of journalist-audience relationship—an organic resultant of engagement. We found that journalists are taking on new kinds of roles in social spaces—often in the name of “engagement”—but that work is not always particularly interactive with citizens; rather, content is engaged with. In contrast, citizens look to journalists to play a number of roles that range from civic guide to therapist. Thus, relationship building happens sporadically. Furthermore, engagement level is dependent on the platform and its affordances. This research offers a continuum of social media engagement conceived as relationship building that can reconcile the disparities in how we define engagement, and suggests newsrooms appreciate the nuances via a series of recommendations.
Political content from Russian trolls appears crafted to exploit intergroup distrust and enmity - on both sides of the aisle
Evidence from an analysis of Twitter data reveals that Russian social media trolls exploited racial and political identities to infiltrate distinct groups of authentic users, playing on their group identities. The groups affected spanned the ideological spectrum, suggesting the importance of coordinated counter-responses from diverse coalitions of users.