A presentation by Katharina Baum (University of Potsdam). This event is part of the Digital Governance Research Colloquium hosted by the Centre for Digital Governance.
Please note this event has been rescheduled from 27 April 2022 to 25 May 2022.
Abstract: The growing popularity of social media platforms has dramatically changed the landscape of political campaigning. Political parties now target algorithmically optimised messages to voters on various digital platforms, which has led to negative reactions in media and society. Targeted political advertisements have raised concerns over data privacy and the public has called for more regulation. However, the same kind of response has not been observed with other forms of targeted advertisements, such as product advertisements. Is it really privacy concerns that motivate the outrage? In this talk, three studies will be presented that analyse the magnitude of privacy concerns towards targeted political advertisements compared product advertisements. Furthermore, experimental evidence for the phenomenon that people believe that others are more easily influenced by targeted political advertisements than they themselves are will be presented. Results indicate that in cases where this has negative outcomes for people’s own preferred party, people are willing to trade privacy concerns for partisan benefit.
Katharina Baum is a PhD Candidate at the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society in Berlin and the University of Potsdam. At the Weizenbaum Institute, she is part of the research group “Digital Technologies and Well-being”. In her research, she focusses on the interplay between social media and individual well-being as well as societal implications of social media use. She studies privacy concerns regarding targeted political advertising, and the effects of social media use on self-esteem. She gained her Master’s degree in Economics and Management Science from Humboldt University.
This event is moderated by Daniela Stockmann, Professor of Digital Governance at the Hertie School.
Please note prior registration is required. Registered atendees will receive the login details via email prior to the event.