Advances in computing and the Internet have opened up new possibilities for political parties and transformed election campaigns. But is the impact of these digital technologies on election results as great as we think?
Concordia University communications researcher Fenwick McKelvey looked at the use of computers in American elections from the 1960s to the 1990s, as well as the impact of digital technology on contemporary election campaigns.
The researcher studied archive documents and interviewed political organizers, consultants and activists in the United States. This broad perspective allowed him to observe that advances in digital technologies have influenced politics for nearly 80 years.
His research shows some exaggeration regarding the impact of technology on the outcome of political campaigns. The recent US presidential election victories of Barack Obama and Donald Trump have frequently been attributed to better techniques for targeting voters on social media. The same was said of the Political Information Systems (PINS) program during Ronald Reagan’s campaign in 1984.
Fenwick McKelvey warns against the temptation to believe that technology is a determining factor in political success or failure. In his view, this simplistic discourse would be detrimental to reflection on the root causes of voters' political choices. For example, disillusionment with the unfulfilled promises of the welfare state among a part of the US and Canadian populations is fuelling the current fracture of the liberal democracy model. This tension, which is very present on social media, has in fact existed in society for a long time. Technologies can amplify or exploit social and political dynamics, but it is these dynamics that ultimately influence political choices.
Reference:
McKelvey, F. et Piebiak, J. (2019). Does the Difference Compute? Data-Driven Campaigning in Canada. https://doi.org/10.59962/9780774861175-014 Dans M. Lalancette, V. Raynauld, et E. Crandall (Eds.), What’s Trending in Canadian Politics? – Understanding Transformations in Power, Media, and the Public Sphere, UBC Press, 194-215.
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