[ecrea] Call for papers of the Internet Policy Review : Special issue on ‘Political micro-targeting’

  Special issue on ‘Political micro-targeting’

*Call for papers of the /Internet Policy Review/*


    TOPIC & RELEVANCE

Data have become corner stones for political campaigning and strategies. 
Political parties increasingly use data-driven expertise and research to 
build extensive databases on citizens, voters. These data sets allow 
politicians to engage in political micro-targeting by addressing 
individual voters with tailor-made messages, attuned to their individual 
background, attitudes, beliefs, concerns, etc. During campaigns 
political micro-targeting can be used to personalise political 
advertising. Between elections they are often put to use to grow the 
voter base, mobilise voters in, for example, referenda, and keep their 
existing voters engaged.

Different systemic factors affect the tools, the scope, the depth, and 
the effectiveness of political micro-targeting in different countries. 
Laws on privacy and data protection define the limits of data collection 
and voter profiling. The particularities of national political systems 
define political priorities, campaign budgets, etc. The local media 
environment shapes the contours of the political debate. In addition, a 
complex network of organisations and intermediaries: marketing and 
survey companies, data brokers, canvassers, online intermediaries, such 
as ad companies, or social networking sites, and technology companies 
also shape the process of micro-targeting. As we have seen, some of 
these factors are inherently local, but global technological 
infrastructures, and supra-national platforms, such as Facebook, play an 
increasingly central role in the local political processes.

There are many pressing issues to discuss around political 
micro-targeting: what kind of data is collected on citizens? How are 
they profiled? How transparent are the processes of profiling and 
targeting? How transparent are the organisations involved? How neutral 
are the supposedly neutral intermediaries, such as Facebook or Google? 
How are political parties and campaigns changing due to micro-targeting? 
Does micro-targeting fulfil its promises of raising issue diversity, 
higher citizen engagement, or lowering the barriers of entry for new 
entrants? Is there evidence of the alleged dangers of micro-targeting: 
voter manipulation, voter exclusion, the fragmentation and polarisation 
of the political discourse? What are the novel, innovative methods with 
which this emerging phenomena can be studied?


    SCOPE OF THE SPECIAL ISSUE

Recent or upcoming elections in the EU and the US offer the chance to 
take a look into political micro-targeting from multiple perspectives. 
Micro-targeting plays a different role in different local or national 
elections. Studies that discuss political micro-targeting in these 
various localities offer an opportunity to develop a comparative 
approach, and understand how local factors shape the use and effects of 
political micro-targeting. On the other hand, studies on international 
online actors, such as Facebook may help us understand how these global 
entities influence the local body politic.

The Internet Policy Review invites theoretical, empirical, and 
methodological papers on the topic of political micro-targeting to 
discuss an emergent phenomena via the lens of interdisciplinary 
research. Based on extended abstracts, a selection of contributions will 
be made. All authors of papers selected for the special issue will be 
invited to present and discuss their full paper at an expert workshop 
held in Amsterdam in September 2017. The purpose of the workshop is to 
enable exchange of ideas on this timely issue, and provide peer-feedback 
for the finalisation of the papers. A sub-selection of these papers will 
eventually make it into the special issue based on regular peer review.


    FOCUS OF THE PAPERS

We invite papers from social sciences, law, digital humanities, 
economics, critical studies, data science, and related sciences on any 
of the following, or related issues:

  *

    Analysing the extent to which political marketing is already taking
    place, the kind of data and practices that are being used, the
    actors involved

  *

    Political micro-targeting from a comparative perspective

  *

    The role of intermediaries, such as platforms, in political
    micro-targeting

  *

    Effects studies and experiences with political micro-targeting: does
    it work, and if so how and for which citizens?

  *

    The economics of political micro-targeting

  *

    Lessons learned from commercial micro-targeting

  *

    Drivers and obstacles to political micro-targeting

  *

    Political, democratic, cultural, economic, societal implications of
    political micro-targeting

  *

    Ethics and regulations of political micro-targeting

  *

    Novel, innovative methods to study political micro-targeting


    SPECIAL ISSUE EDITORS

  *

    *Claes de Vreese*, Amsterdam School of Communication Research
    (ASCoR), University of Amsterdam ((C.H.deVreese /at/ uva.nl)
    <mailto:(C.H.deVreese /at/ uva.nl)>)

  *

    *Natali Helberger*, Institute of Information Law (IViR), University
    of Amsterdam ((n.helberger /at/ uva.nl) <mailto:(n.helberger /at/ uva.nl)>)

  *

    *Balázs Bodó*, Institute for Information Law (IViR), University of
    Amsterdam ((bodo /at/ uva.nl) <mailto:(bodo /at/ uva.nl)>)


    IMPORTANT DATES

Release of the call for papers: 24 January 2017

Deadline for expression of interest and abstract submissions (500 word 
abstracts) via the form below (see under SUBMIT): *2 April*

Feedback / Invitation to submit full text submissions: *21 April*

Full text submissions deadline. All details on text submissions can be 
found under http://policyreview.info/authors 
<http://policyreview.info/authors>: *1 September*

Workshop in Amsterdam: *22 and 23 September*

Peer review process: *4 September - 30 October*

Readying for publication: *1 - 15 November*

Publication: *20 November 2017*


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