The battle for the 60th US presidential election ended with the victory of Republican candidate Donald Trump. Although it is too early to ask the controversial question about the integrity of the elections and whether the electoral process was marred by any interference, whether internal or external, this question will remain the greatest concern for observers and journalists.
For us as journalists and those interested in technology, what matters to us is that the rioters “media and technology” do not have a suspicious role in these recent elections, especially since they have proven more than once that in the school of elections their actions can never be predicted.
Media “rudder” and technology “compass”
In the world of politics, the media has always been a vital part in shaping public opinion and directing the interests of voters, and from here I found the Agenda-Setting Theory, which explains how the media acts as a guide that guides the feelings of the masses and can change their opinions, as the media plays an important role in Highlighting certain issues and ignoring others, making the audience see them as the most important.
This becomes clear when we use the media sentiment dashboard developed by independent researchers in cooperation with journalists on Al Jazeera and we try to see what the media has focused on in the past period.
We will note here that Media Sentiment Dashboard By observing the timeline from the beginning of the year, there has been a significant increase in published articles that focus on the “character” of the candidates after Kamala Harris’ candidacy in July, as the articles reached (1579) compared to (326) in the period that preceded it, extending from the beginning of January. /January until the end of June of this year.
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This shows us how the media plays the role of a spotlight that wants to shed light on a particular topic more than another, and from here we find that the media is the one who has the helm in changing the course since it is variable, but what is the role of technology?
With the rise of social media at the turn of the millennium, individuals and organizations have unprecedented access to audiences and direct public debates in a more influential way than traditional media alone could. This development changed the rules of the game, and gave election campaigns a great opportunity to interact directly with voters and quickly gauge reactions.
Previously, political campaigns relied on demographic data and past voting records to determine target voter segments.
But today, the political arena is witnessing a remarkable transformation, with electoral campaigns increasingly relying on artificial intelligence to analyze huge amounts of data, target voters, personalize messages, and improve strategies.
This analysis helps uncover patterns that help identify key categories of voters that traditional analysts may miss.
It also helps identify the groups most affected by certain messages, giving political campaigns an unprecedented ability to effectively direct their resources and focus their efforts on the segments most likely to interact with their content. In addition, AI improves campaign strategies via predictive analytics, allowing results to be predicted and steps to be adjusted proactively.
One of these analyzes is what we can call “Contextual Emotional Analysis.” A more sophisticated level of psychoanalysis by technology came with the entry of Cambridge Analytica into the 2016 elections.
The company used personal data from millions of Facebook users to build detailed psychological profiles, which allowed it to customize political ads compatible with voters’ personalities and deep motivations. This analysis takes into account psychological and social contexts, and enables campaigns to build targeted messages that interact with voters’ individual backgrounds.
With the continued development of artificial intelligence, it appears that these tools will not only expand the capabilities of election campaigns, but may also enable new applications of this theory.
Artificial intelligence, thanks to machine learning techniques and neural networks, has become able to understand human emotions in more complex ways, making election campaigns able to accurately track audience tendencies and deliver messages that go beyond traditional concepts.
From here we conclude that the media is the rudder that guides public opinion, while technology is only the compass that determines the direction.
How can a professor of “logic and ethics” control media and technology?
Election campaigns face many ethical challenges when using AI to emotionally target voters, one of the biggest of which is exploiting emotional vulnerabilities.
By analyzing voters’ emotions, some campaigns may focus their messages on arousing feelings of fear, anxiety, or anger, which may lead to unbalanced effects.
In addition, invasion of privacy is a major challenge, as personal data that voters did not realize was being analyzed may be used, raising issues about the rights of individuals to protect their information. Imagine a world where your online behaviors are analyzed to create a detailed psychological profile of you.
Artificial intelligence algorithms process vast amounts of data, identifying patterns and preferences to build files that are constantly updated with an influx of new information.
But what does this mean for your electoral experience? The carefully targeted content generated by these files is designed to target fears, ambitions and biases.
Imagine an AI system that identifies voters concerned about immigration, which might then deliver personalized messages that reinforce a candidate’s immigration policies or question a competitor’s position.
And the result? Subtle changes in perception and behavior can influence uncertain voters or even dissuade them from participating in elections altogether.
There is also the risk of manipulation of the facts, as campaigns can manipulate and use information to misleadingly change voters’ perceptions, which undermines the principle of transparency in the democratic process.
Misinformation generated by artificial intelligence technologies has the ability to spread very quickly. This rapid expansion enhances the potential impact of disinformation campaigns, making it difficult for individuals and stakeholders to counter them.
Using data analytics and machine learning, AI can tailor disinformation campaigns to specific demographics.
By tracking social media behavior and political affiliations, these systems can identify targets most vulnerable to misinformation, prompting us to ask: When does the use of this technology become emotional manipulation that reshapes the public’s consciousness in unethical ways?
A notable example of ethical boundary crossing was Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, which made use of Cambridge Analytica’s services. This company exploited the personal data of millions of Facebook users to build psychological profiles, allowing the campaign to send messages designed to manipulate voters’ emotions and target their vulnerabilities.
This behavior led to angry reactions and widespread criticism, and led to a major scandal that shook the technology sector and politics alike.
This scandal resulted in changes to Facebook policies and a comprehensive re-evaluation of privacy laws, and also prompted lawmakers to consider policies that limit the exploitation of personal data in election campaigns.
As artificial intelligence deepens into the political landscape, a form of psychological warfare is redefining how to influence voters. This manipulation will erode trust in democratic institutions.
When the audience “no longer agrees”
A poll conducted by the Up-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research revealed that about 70% of Americans feel concerned or frustrated about the conduct of the 2024 election campaign.
This percentage reflects the extent of pessimism that dominates voters, as only about a third of those polled expressed any real enthusiasm for the elections, which shows a decline in the feelings of excitement that usually characterize this major national event, according to what was reported by the Associated Press.
This introduction was published days before the decisive election day, as it makes it very clear that the public no longer sees the electoral process as a reflection of their hopes and dreams as much as it is a reflection of personal ambitions exaggerated by the media about the personalities of the candidates and assisted by technology to try to influence them.
