Exploring digital campaign competence

Autor(en)

Sophie Minihold, Sophie Lecheler, Claes de Vreese

Abstrakt

Data-driven political advertising (DDPA) is a manifestation of data-driven campaigning and is increasingly used by European political parties. Political actors can collect vast amounts of personal data to show voters targeted ads. Therefore, DDPA has received much attention from scholars. However, we lack insights into what voters know about DDPA, and how this knowledge affects (dis-)engagement with personalized ads. We approach this problem by examining (a) which voter characteristics enhance understanding of DDPA tactics and implications, and (b) to what extent DDPA knowledge plays a role for engaging with or avoiding of political ads. In a two-wave panel survey study (N

_W1 = 1264, N

_W2 = 1011), conducted during the 2021 Dutch General Elections, we show that (a) male, younger, higher educated and politically interested respondents were most knowledgeable. Yet, (b) the predictors vary when examining different types of DDPA knowledge, and (c) DDPA knowledge neither affects ad engagement nor ad avoidance, but we find that political interest and self-efficacy are crucial for ad engagement and ad avoidance, respectively. These findings discuss the relevance of DDPA knowledge in the context of data-driven campaigns, and add to the debate on how to best empower voters in a changed political advertising landscape.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Publizistik- und Kommunikationswissenschaft

Externe Organisation(en)

University of Amsterdam (UvA)

Journal

Journal of Information Technology & Politics

Anzahl der Seiten

ISSN

1933-1681

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2024.2416012

Publikationsdatum

10-2024

Peer-reviewed

ÖFOS 2012

508007 Kommunikationswissenschaft

Schlagwörter

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Allgemeine Computerwissenschaft, Sociology and Political Science, Public administration

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/ed960fcb-1076-401d-9f3d-39fc48039b1b