From Distribution Channels to Active Intermediaries: How Technology Firms Shape Political Communication

• In Event: Digital Campaigns, Social Media, and Elections: New Platforms, New Research

Abstract

This paper offers an analysis of the role that technology companies, specifically Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Twitter, play in shaping political communication. We develop a co-evolutionary model of how the technology, political, and media fields are adapting to one another through the course of their work around electoral politics and governance. Through interviews with representatives of these firms and digital and social media directors of 2016 presidential primary campaigns, as well as field observations at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, we find that technology firms are motivated to work in the political space because it facilitates their long-term work at relationship building in the service of lobbying efforts. We also find that Facebook and Google, in particular, are not simply passive distribution channels for political content, but active intermediaries that shape political communication. This includes Google’s account representatives serving as quasi-digital consultants to campaigns, shaping both digital strategy and execution.

Authors

• Daniel Kreiss, U of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Shannon C McGregor, University of Utah