Advertising

Hal Machow Is Going to Die on Thursday. He Has One Last Message for Democrats.
Politico
“‘Ninety percent of voters are choosing parties,’ he writes. ‘Yet our approach to advertising has not changed at all. Almost 100 percent of our advertising dollars are spent on candidate choice. The decision driving 9 out of 10 votes is not being addressed at all.’”

Experimentation Makes TV Ads More Effective – David Broockman (UC Berkeley)
Business of Politics Show
"In a world where it's kind of hard to predict what works, but it is the case that some things work better than others, that really kind of underscores the value of doing this kind of experimentation."

Campaigns

In 2020, the Biden Campaign Knew Age Was His Achilles’ Heel. Here’s What They Did.
Politico
"Flaherty’s team aimed its response across Google’s network so the ads appeared on pages including keywords tied to the disinformation narratives (like “Kamala + cop” or “Biden + senile,” for example). In so doing, the campaign turned what Flaherty called the “problematic inventory” into a practical vector for showing a counter-message at exactly the moment when people were being exposed to the disinformation."

The viral ‘bloodbath’ clip and the rise of the liberal video influencer
Semafor
"A media outlet might hesitate to post something that critics could call out for missing context; a campaign was assumed to be bending facts for its own benefit. (Think of the campaign reactions to their candidates’ debate performances, which never seriously compete with viral clips.) It was smarter, said Gorman, for campaigns to cultivate allies, then promote their work."

The White House Is Briefing Dozens of Online Creators on Biden’s State of the Union Address
Wired
"The creators have a combined audience of more than 100 million followers across platforms. The administration is hoping to tap that large digital audience to reach voters who may not tune in to Thursday’s speech."

Content

Why Campaigns Need a Wikipedia Strategy with Rhiannon Ruff
Digital Politics Radio
"Increasingly, for voters and the media, Wikipedia is the go-to source for campaign and candidate information, and the accuracy of the information is critical for the site's moderators."

Data

Some states are fighting to protect voters from doxxing. They're losing.
Politico
"The suits have turned American voter records into a politically charged flashpoint — a contest between bipartisan public officials who want citizens to have a measure of protection for their personal information, and conservative groups that see ‘election transparency’ as a goal that trumps privacy rights."

Social Media

How Trump’s Allies Are Winning the War Over Disinformation
New York Times
"The arguments strike at the heart of an unsettled question in modern American political life: In a world of unlimited online communications, in which anyone can reach huge numbers of people with unverified and false information, where is the line between protecting democracy and trampling on the right to free speech?"

Meta to Replace Widely Used Data Tool—and Largely Cut Off Reporter Access
Wall Street Journal
"The social-media giant said it will decommission CrowdTangle in five months and is replacing it with a tool called the Meta Content Library, which will be available only to academic and nonprofit researchers, not to most news outlets."

Young Democrats sound the alarm about banning TikTok before the election
Politico
“‘Democrats need to reach younger voters more than Republicans need to reach them, and TIkTok is the most valuable tool to do that,’ said Kyle Tharp, who is the managing director at Courier, a progressive media company. ‘Taking that tool away from campaigns, progressive media companies, content creators two months out from Election Day would be a net negative for Democratic candidates.’”