Case study: The Ethics of Using Psychographic Data in Political Campaigns

Classroom ready case study with the Center for Media Ethics at UT - Austin

“In a world of big data, the information that consumers regularly and voluntarily generate is completely changing the landscape of political communication. At every step of the process, political communicators must consider how far they are willing to go to change a voter’s mind. At what point does a political advertisement blatantly manipulate a voter’s information? Has this information been obtained with the voter’s consent? Is the use of psychographic information capitalizing on a culture of misinformation, sensationalism, and alarmism in a way that harms voters?”

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