Dark Advertising and the Democratic Process

Saunders, Joe

Dark Advertising and the Democratic Process

Saunders, Joe

Authors

Dr Joe Saunders joe.saunders@durham.ac.uk
Associate Professor

Contributors

Kevin Macnish
Editor

Jai Galliott
Editor

Abstract

Political advertising is changing. This chapter considers some of the implications of this for the democratic process. I begin with recent reports of online political advertising. From this, two related concerns emerge. The first is that online political advertisements sometimes occur in the dark, and the second is that they can involve sending different messages to different groups. I consider these issues in turn. This involves an extended discussion of the importance of publicity and discussion in democracy, and a comparison between dog whistles and dark advertisements. Through this, I look to outline some of the ways in which online political advertisements can undermine the democratic process.

Citation

Saunders, J. (2020). Dark Advertising and the Democratic Process. In K. Macnish, & J. Galliott (Eds.), Big data and democracy. Edinburgh University Press

Online Publication Date	Jul 1, 2020
Publication Date	2020-07
Deposit Date	Jul 1, 2020
Publicly Available Date	Jul 1, 2023
Publisher	Edinburgh University Press
Book Title	Big data and democracy.
ISBN	9781474463522
Publisher URL	https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-big-data-and-democracy.html