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Data-Driven Maintaining: The Role of the Party and Data Maintenance in the US Context

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  • Jessica Baldwin-Philippi

    (Department of Communication and Media Studies, Fordham University, USA)

Abstract

Political campaigning in the US is unique in the global context for its lack of attention to the role of the party, largely due to the centrality and power of campaigns. In the US context, successful data-driven campaigning (DDC) has often been covered by the press and analyzed by US scholars as an innovative campaign creating new tools and new tactics (and earning more media coverage for them). This research investigates the oft-ignored role of party organizations in DDC in the US, and in doing so, highlights the invisible work of data maintenance that is their purview. Methodologically, it brings together interviews with staffers from both party organizations and campaigns with thematic analysis of news coverage to answer questions about how the data-driven practices of parties versus campaigns differ, how parties’ data work is (and is not) covered, and what, in staffers’ views, contributes to such coverage. Ultimately, this research highlights how a lack of attention to party organizations’ work has gone hand in hand with a lack of attention to maintenance work in both academic and public discussions of DDC.

Suggested Citation

  • Jessica Baldwin-Philippi, 2024. "Data-Driven Maintaining: The Role of the Party and Data Maintenance in the US Context," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 12.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8735
    DOI: 10.17645/mac.8735
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. David W. Nickerson & Todd Rogers, 2014. "Political Campaigns and Big Data," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 28(2), pages 51-74, Spring.
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