TY - JOUR

T1 - Is There a Future for Voter Targeting Online in Russia?

AU - Лукьянова, Галина Владимировна

N1 - Funding Information: Acknowledgments. The reported study was funded by RFBR according to the research project № 18-011-00705 “Explanatory Potential of Network Theory in Political Research: Methodological Synthesis as Analytical Strategy.” The author wishes to thank Ksenia Suzi for the assist, and three anonymous reviewers for comments on earlier versions of this article.

PY - 2018/11/10

Y1 - 2018/11/10

N2 - The use of targeting as election technology in campaigns increases in western democracies with each electoral cycle, and every time new forms and methods are being applied. During the last presidential campaigns of B. Obama, D. Trump, and E. Macron, targeting was actively used to improve the effectiveness of the impact on the target audience of voters. The Russian school of political consulting traditionally uses new western technologies, adapting them to the nature of the political process in Russia. This article examines the pattern of usage of different targeting methods during campaigns in the State Duma elections. The research involves expert interviews with political consultants who were professionally connected to the planning and conduct of election campaigns. Internet targeting is gaining its popularity among Russian political consultants to carry out targeted work with some groups of voters in social media. The development is slower than that in Western countries due to the lack of tried-and-tested tools, high financial costs, and indifference to politics of most Russian web users. The prospects for using microtargeting in Russian political campaigns are somewhat ambiguous due to the existing legislative restrictions and, in general, the need itself for such an in-depth method of agitation.

AB - The use of targeting as election technology in campaigns increases in western democracies with each electoral cycle, and every time new forms and methods are being applied. During the last presidential campaigns of B. Obama, D. Trump, and E. Macron, targeting was actively used to improve the effectiveness of the impact on the target audience of voters. The Russian school of political consulting traditionally uses new western technologies, adapting them to the nature of the political process in Russia. This article examines the pattern of usage of different targeting methods during campaigns in the State Duma elections. The research involves expert interviews with political consultants who were professionally connected to the planning and conduct of election campaigns. Internet targeting is gaining its popularity among Russian political consultants to carry out targeted work with some groups of voters in social media. The development is slower than that in Western countries due to the lack of tried-and-tested tools, high financial costs, and indifference to politics of most Russian web users. The prospects for using microtargeting in Russian political campaigns are somewhat ambiguous due to the existing legislative restrictions and, in general, the need itself for such an in-depth method of agitation.

KW - Internet targeting

KW - Political campaigns

KW - Voter targeting

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85057103173&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/978-3-030-02843-5_10

DO - 10.1007/978-3-030-02843-5_10

M3 - Article

VL - 858

SP - 115

EP - 126

JO - Communications in Computer and Information Science

JF - Communications in Computer and Information Science

SN - 1865-0929

ER -