News influencers with Rachel Gilmore

In this episode Elizabeth delves into the fascinating world of data and personalization with Hamish Marshall, former National Campaign Manager for the Conservative Party of Canada and seasoned expert at the crossroads of data and politics. They explore the evolution from the Two-Step Flow to the One-Step Flow of Communication, examining how data personalization and the changing media landscape have shifted the way information is disseminated in political campaigns. Hamish shares real-world insights into the practicalities and challenges of data-driven campaigning, touching on the nuances of voter targeting, the effectiveness of door-knocking, and the potential of personalized campaign strategies.

Additional Resources:

• Elizabeth relies on Bennett and Manheim’s article, The One-Step Flow of Communication, to outline the theory. 
• To provide historical context, The Two-Step Flow of Communication by Katz is referenced. 
• For further information on data-driven campaigning, consult Just what is data-driven campaigning? A systematic review by Dommet, Barclay, and Gibson. 
• Hamish discusses the limitations of data targeting in political campaigns, referencing the varied effectiveness of these strategies in different jurisdictions due to privacy laws and data availability. For more information about data laws and availability, consult:
  • Elections Canada’s collection of personal information and data privacy practices,
  • This Reuters article on the use of data in political campaigns in US elections, 
  • This piece about the German government's support of banning the use of personal data in political campaigning, and 
  • The UK’s guidelines for the use of personal data in political campaigns. 

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French.

In this episode, Elizabeth chats with digital communication strategist and experienced political campaigner, Nate Lubin about social media content creators in politics. Nate draws on his experience with the Better Internet Initiative which helps influencers make educational content related to progressive issues as well as his past experience as Director of the Office of Digital Strategy at the White House and Director of Digital Marketing at Obama for America. They talk about what constitutes a political influencer, how content creators engage in politics, and different models of influencer engagement.

Additional Resources:

• Elizabeth relies on Brooke Erin Duffy’s article, Social Media Influencers to define the term.
• Check out the Better Internet Initiative, a program that Nate mentions throughout the episode. 
• Elizabeth mentions Political influencers in Canadian election laws, as defined by Elections Canada in their interpretation note on partisan and election advertising on the internet.
• For more context on what “political speech” means in the American context, here is an article by de Gregorio and Goanta, which touches on how political speech is a constitutionally protected form of speech in the US.
• Nate mentions his Berkman Klein Centre’s Project, Accountability Infrastructure in Public Health. 
• Throughout the episode Elizabeth and Nate talk about different models of engaging social media influencers in politics. Check out the article Social Media Influencers and the 2020 U.S. Election: Paying ‘Regular People’ for Digital Campaign Communication, for more from an American perspective.

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French.

In this episode Elizabeth chats with journalist Rachel Gilmore about what counts as journalistic content and how to navigate the intersection of journalism and the social media influencer industry. Rachel is a freelance journalist who posts regularly on TikTok (@rachel_gilmore), Instagram (@r.gilmore), and X (@atRachelGilmore) having previously worked in organizations such as CTV and Global News.

Additional Resources:

• In this episode, Elizabeth and Rachel discuss the blurred boundaries between traditional media and new media platforms. Learn more about this from Phoebe Maares’ article: Exploring the boundaries of journalism: Instagram micro-bloggers in the twilight zone of lifestyle journalism.
• Rachel and Elizabeth discuss the decline in trust of journalists in the shift towards new marketing strategies. For more, consult Leonie Wunderlich’s article: Does Journalism Still Matter? The Role of Journalistic and non-Journalistic Sources in Young Peoples’ News Related Practices.
• Rachel mentions the role of journalists on TikTok and what new forms of journalism have appeared with the use of TikTok. To read further on those new forms and journalists’ roles, consult María-Cruz Negreira-Rey’s article: Blurring Boundaries Between Journalists and Tiktokers: Journalistic Role Performance on TikTok.
• Elizabeth and Rachel explore how news influencers challenge the traditional theoretical tensions between celebrity influence and opinion leadership. For more on opinion leadership, check out our previous episode: The Two-Step Flow Hypothesis with Nick Switzalski. 
• Elizabeth mentions a previous Wonks and War Rooms episode on Journalism and online harassment with Rosemary Barton, Fatima Syed and Mark Blackburn. This episode was a special live recording in our Season 4 on Mis- and Dis-information.
• Find Rachel’s work on TikTok (@rachel_gilmore), Instagram (@r.gilmore), and X (@atRachelGilmore).

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French.

This week Elizabeth chats with Dave Sommer, Vice President of Strategic Communication at Enterprise Canada, former Head of Politics and Government at Instagram in Washington, D.C., and former Deputy Director of Communications, Digital, for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Ottawa. They chat about the use of social media in political campaigning, where personal influence fits in, and how it has evolved over time.

Additional Resources:

• Elizabeth and Dave discuss how social media can be a tool to help connect with existing political audiences and potentially mobilize folks who are on your side. Learn more about this from Andrew Hugh’s book chapter, Weapons of Mass Consumption: Social and Digital Media in Political Campaigns.
• Elizabeth mentions that social media may be changing how campaigns leverage volunteers and online relationships. Bruce Bimber’s article, Digital Media in the Obama Campaigns: Adaptation to the Personalized Political Communication Environment, argues that Obama set a precedent for this type of engagement.
• Elizabeth notes that social media platforms are constantly evolving and she chats with Dave about how some are choosing to deprioritize political content. For more on how changes in platform structure can influence campaigning, see The Digital Architectures of Social Media.
• Elizabeth and Dave touch on the importance of authenticity in social media. For more on this, listen to our Season 1 episode on Authenticity with Kevin Parent.
• Dave talks about his experience developing the  "I voted" stickers on Instagram in 2018 and Meta’s Voter Information Center in 2020.
• Dave references NDP leader Jagmeet Singh’s use of TikTok in the last election. For more on this, see The Use of TikTok for Political Campaigning in Canada: The Case of Jagmeet Singh.
• Elizabeth brings up the idea that the candidate that you want to have a beer with may be the candidate you're more likely to vote for, to which Dave recalls the “beer summit”  and that neither Trump nor Biden drink.
• Throughout the discussion, Dave is reminded of the famous quote: “Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you."

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French.

This week Elizabeth chats with tech culture reporter and Washington Post columnist, Taylor Lorenz about influencers and the influencer industry. Taylor takes us from Ce-web-reties to influencers to content creators, telling us a bit about the history of folks who monetize their online presence. The two chat about the influencer industry beyond social media influencer marketing, the unique dynamics of political campaigning, smaller scale content creators as opinion leaders, and the ways in which having a perspective in the content you create meshes with expectations for authenticity and objectivity.

Additional Resources:

• Check out Taylor’s book Extremely Online : The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet.
• Elizabeth introduces a definition of influencer by Brooke Erin Duffy, you might also want to check out Brooke’s book: (Not) Getting Paid to Do What you Love.
• Elizabeth adds to that definition to talk about political influencers building from an article by Martin Riedl, Josephine Lukito and Samuel Woolley.
• Taylor mentions White House efforts to rely on influencers during the COVID-19 pandemic and Elizabeth mentions a similar strategy by the Quebec government. 
• If you are interested in the influencer industry The Influencer Industry by Emily Hund and Internet Celebrity by Crystal Abidin are two great books to check out.
• Find Taylor on TikTok and YouTube.

Taylor Lorenz’s social media info: 

• Instagram (@taylorlorenz)
• Facebook (Taylor P Lorenz) 
• X (Formerly Twitter) (@TaylorLorenz) 
• Threads (@taylorlorenz)
• Youtube (@TaylorLorenz)
• Tiktok (@taylorlorenz)

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French.

Prepare for an intriguing journey in Season 6 of Wonks & War Rooms! Join Elizabeth Dubois as she unravels the dynamics of personal influence in politics, especially as it evolves with new technologies. In this episode Elizabeth talks about her experience working in politics and how it has pushed her to question what counts as personal influence and what roles technology plays in political communication.

She also gives a peak at what to expect this season. 

New episodes drop Wednesday mornings.

Additional Resources:

• Elizabeth highlights how new technologies are integrated into campaign strategies.
• Elizabeth summarizes the two step flow hypothesis, published by Katz and Lazarsfeld in the 1950s. They hypothesized that most people rely on their social circle to help interpret and filter information. 
  • For more info, see our previous episode from Season 1: The Two-Step Flow and Opinion Leaders with Nick Switalski 
• Elizabeth highlights key topics within personal influence, such as targeted communications using personal data and news influencers.  
• Elizabeth links the one-step flow of communication to the influence of personalized messages based on data collection.
• Elizabeth highlights our new relationships with our media environment.
• Elizabeth gives an overview of persuasion and how it works, through methods such as reciprocation. 
• Next, Elizabeth recalls a period of micro-targeting using massive amounts of personal data, before highlighting the use of social networks for peer-to-peer communications, like relational campaigning
• Finally, Elizabeth forecasts an uptake in synthetic content in future campaigning.

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French.

Get ready for Season 6 of Wonks & War Rooms! This season, we're looking at personal influence in politics and how it evolves as new technologies are integrated into campaign strategies.

Host Elizabeth Dubois will talk to journalists, campaigners, content creators, activists and more to discuss everything from opinion leaders to social media influencers to personalization and augmented analytics to generative AI and how all of those things impact the way personal influence plays out in politics.

As always, episodes will drop Wednesday mornings every week or two. Our first episode of the season is coming to your feed Wednesday, January 20th.

Also, to expand on last season's discussion about political uses of AI in Canada, we are launching a brand new report. You can sign up for our free virtual launch event on January 31st at noon Eastern Standard Time, where Laura Tribe and I will discuss the report and what it means for upcoming elections and campaigns

Get caught up on past episodes and find fully annotated transcripts in English and French at https://www.polcommtech.com/.

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French.

In this final episode, our host Elizabeth reflects on the six episodes of Season 5, which dug into tech, politics, and policy with guests from the Berkman Klein Centre at Harvard and Center for Information Technology and Public Life (CITAP) at UNC-Chapel Hill. She recaps highlights of each episode, looks at what they had in common, and where we need to dig a little deeper.

Additional resources:

Here are direct links to this season’s episodes, including show notes and annotated transcripts:

• Episode 1: Knowledge Mobilization for Policy Impact with Petra Molnar
• Episode 2: Image Manipulation with Juliana Castro-Varón
• Episode 3: Meta Oversight Board with Julie Owono
• Episode 4: Big Tech and Political Campaigns with Becca Rinkevich
• Episode 5: The Uses of AI in Canadian Politics (Live Event)
• Episode 6: Antitrust and Big Tech with Matt Perault

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French.

Matt Perault is the director of the Center on Technology Policy at UNC Chapel Hill, and previously worked at Facebook, as the head of the global policy development team. This episode he and Elizabeth get into the weeds on antitrust competition laws, monopolies and big tech. They talk about how monopolies can be both good and bad, the goals of antitrust laws, and the complication of these laws applying across different regions of the world. They also discuss some of the antitrust lawsuits in big tech right now, and the various stakeholders involved.

Additional resources: 

• Off the top, Elizabeth mentions this crash course video about monopolies and anti-competitive markets.
• Matt uses a few terms related to the antitrust context: 
  • interoperability - the ability for users to use different devices or systems interchangeability, for example using the same cable to charge different types of cell phones
  • nondiscrimination principle - an antitrust principle that obliges companies to be neutral vis-à-vis other competitors and service providers in their industry
  • consumer welfare standard - a guideline that prohibits actions by companies that negatively impact consumers
• Matt brings up a number of antitrust cases throughout the episode: 
  • FTC suit to block a proposed merger between Meta and Within Unlimited
  • UK looking into Microsoft bid to buy video game company Activision
  • 16 U.S. states and territories filed a suit against Google over ad technology practices
  • U.S. Justice Department filed a suit on the same issue at the federal level
  • FTC looking at Amazon for monopolistic business practices
  • Dispute between Apple and Epic Games 
  • House Judiciary Committee did a big a investigation of big tech companies
• There are also a few big pieces of antitrust legislation that come up. 
  • General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) — Europe
  • Competition Act — Canada
  •  Please visit our website for complete show notes with additional links.

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French.

In this special episode Elizabeth is joined by our panel of experts — Samantha Bradshaw, Wendy Chun, Suzie Dunn, Fenwick McKelvey and Wendy H. Wong —  for a roundtable discussion on how artificial intelligence is being deployed in Canadian political contexts. The topics range from mis- and disinformation, facial recognition, synthetic media, deep fakes and voice cloning to technical terms like GANs and large language models. We discuss the ways identities can be manipulated through AI, how generative AI creates content that dilutes our trust in images and media, and how AI relies on past data to make decisions about our future. We also look at potential solutions to all these challenges, including how to develop tools and techniques to detect disinformation, and questions around regulating AI while also enabling its use in creative expression.

This episode is packed with more resources than we can list below, so take a look through the annotated transcript for more links!

Additional resources: 

• The discussion focuses a lot on synthetic media — deep fakes, voice cloning, generative AI — and how AI is used to create fake images, videos or sound bites of politicians, as well as fake historical or political events. Some increasingly popular tools include Midjourney, Dall-E, Stable Diffusion and ChatGPT.
• Suzie brings up the challenge of regulating these uses of AI. Take a look at her paper Identity Manipulation: Responding to Advances in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics.
• Samantha talks about tools and techniques to detect AI-enabled dis-information, propaganda and manipulation. Take a look at this guide that she co-authored: Combating Information Manipulation: A Playbook for Elections and Beyond. 
• Wendy C. outlines some of the challenges related to the underlying data on which AI relies and the flawed ways that AI systems make sense of that data. For a deep dive, take a look at her book Discriminating Data: Correlation, Neighborhoods, and the New Politics of Recognition.
• Wendy W. asked the question: what does the public need to know to decide what kinds of automation or machine learning or AI we're comfortable with as a society? Here’s an op-ed she co-wrote for the Globe and Mail on this. And keep your eye out for her upcoming book: We, the Data: Human Rights in the Digital Age.
• Fenwick points out that people have promised computers would disrupt politics since the 1960, and part of the work is understanding which challenges are actually new. Check out his book about the history of programs that run in the background of our computers: Internet Daemons - Digital Communications Possessed. 

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French.