Digital Advertising in U.S. Federal Elections, 2004-2020
Digital advertising is now a commonplace feature of political communication in the United States. Previous research has documented the key innovations associated with digital political advertising and its consequences for campaigns and elections. However, a comprehensive picture of political spendi...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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HOPE
2022-11-01
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| Series: | Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media |
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| Online Access: | https://journalqd.org/article/view/3608 |
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| _version_ | 1849239325310451712 |
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| author | Adam Sheingate James Scharf Conner Delahanty |
| author_facet | Adam Sheingate James Scharf Conner Delahanty |
| author_sort | Adam Sheingate |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
Digital advertising is now a commonplace feature of political communication in the United States. Previous research has documented the key innovations associated with digital political advertising and its consequences for campaigns and elections. However, a comprehensive picture of political spending on digital advertising remains elusive because of the challenges associated with accessing and analyzing data. We address this challenge with a unique dataset (N=3,639,166) derived from over 13 million expenditure records reported to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) between 2004 and 2020. Employing a machine learning model to classify expenditures into nine categories including digital ads and services, this paper makes four key observations. First, 2020 was a watershed election in the growth of digital campaign spending. Second, there are clear partisan differences in the resources allocated to digital advertising. Third, platform companies play a central role in an otherwise partisan market for digital ads and services. Fourth, digital platforms and consultants occupy a distinct ideological niche within each party.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-b2a3686093734de4b9a98a536717fff3 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2673-8813 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2022-11-01 |
| publisher | HOPE |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media |
| spelling | doaj-art-b2a3686093734de4b9a98a536717fff32025-08-20T04:01:02ZengHOPEJournal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media2673-88132022-11-01210.51685/jqd.2022.026Digital Advertising in U.S. Federal Elections, 2004-2020Adam Sheingate0James Scharf1Conner Delahanty2Johns Hopkins UniversityJohns Hopkins UniversityJohns Hopkins University Digital advertising is now a commonplace feature of political communication in the United States. Previous research has documented the key innovations associated with digital political advertising and its consequences for campaigns and elections. However, a comprehensive picture of political spending on digital advertising remains elusive because of the challenges associated with accessing and analyzing data. We address this challenge with a unique dataset (N=3,639,166) derived from over 13 million expenditure records reported to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) between 2004 and 2020. Employing a machine learning model to classify expenditures into nine categories including digital ads and services, this paper makes four key observations. First, 2020 was a watershed election in the growth of digital campaign spending. Second, there are clear partisan differences in the resources allocated to digital advertising. Third, platform companies play a central role in an otherwise partisan market for digital ads and services. Fourth, digital platforms and consultants occupy a distinct ideological niche within each party. https://journalqd.org/article/view/3608Political advertisingPolitical CampaignsU.S. elections |
| spellingShingle | Adam Sheingate James Scharf Conner Delahanty Digital Advertising in U.S. Federal Elections, 2004-2020 Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media Political advertising Political Campaigns U.S. elections |
| title | Digital Advertising in U.S. Federal Elections, 2004-2020 |
| title_full | Digital Advertising in U.S. Federal Elections, 2004-2020 |
| title_fullStr | Digital Advertising in U.S. Federal Elections, 2004-2020 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Digital Advertising in U.S. Federal Elections, 2004-2020 |
| title_short | Digital Advertising in U.S. Federal Elections, 2004-2020 |
| title_sort | digital advertising in u s federal elections 2004 2020 |
| topic | Political advertising Political Campaigns U.S. elections |
| url | https://journalqd.org/article/view/3608 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT adamsheingate digitaladvertisinginusfederalelections20042020 AT jamesscharf digitaladvertisinginusfederalelections20042020 AT connerdelahanty digitaladvertisinginusfederalelections20042020 |