Campaigns
How to Spend A Billion Dollars
Medium Data
"Assuming nearly all the cost here went to texts themselves (yes, there’s overhead probably), that’s something like 4 billion texts sent. Now, that sounds pretty high, so I might be mis-estimating the costs here, but it’s certainly a f*ck ton of text messages. Modern campaigns rely heavily on text outreach for fundraising, as your messages in November probably showed, and some of this traffic is likely post-election fundraising efforts to fill their budget gaps."
What Does The Like & Subscribe Era Mean for Politics?
Center for Campaign Innovation
"Just as C-SPAN opened congressional proceedings to public view, today's digital platforms democratize access to candidate content. The success of political content creators on these platforms suggests voters increasingly prefer direct, authentic engagement over traditional media formats."
Social Media
The Great Social Media Diaspora
Noema
"It was once novel features, like Facebook’s photo tagging or Twitter’s quote tweets, that drew users to social media sites. Now, it’s frequently ideological alignment that seduces users. People are decamping to platforms that they believe match their norms and values — and, in an increasingly polarized America, there is a chasm between the two sides."
With 72 hours to go, TikTok ban sends Washington scrambling
Politico
"Though lawmakers of both parties overwhelmingly voted for the TikTok bill, and Biden quickly signed it into law, now it appears no party wants to face a public reckoning for banning an ultra-popular app with 170 million U.S. users."
Technology
Regulating Election Deepfakes: A Comparison of State Laws
Tech Policy Press
"Despite minimal cases of these bills being used to combat the use of AI-manipulated campaign materials in the 2024 election cycle, it is clear that this issue is here to stay."
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