Big Data and Analytics in Politics
One of the application areas where Big Data and analytics promise to make a big difference is arguably the field of politics. Experiences from the recent presidential elections illustrated the power of Big Data and analytics to acquire and energize millions of volunteers (in the form of a modern-era grassroots movement) not only to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for the election campaign but to optimally organize and mobilize potential voters to get out and vote in large numbers, as well. Clearly, the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections made a mark on the political arena with the creative use of Big Data and analytics to improve chances of winning. Figure 6.7 shows a graphical depiction of the analytical process of converting a wide variety of data into the ingredients for winning an election.
As Figure 6.7 illustrates, data is the source of information; the richer and deeper it is, the better and more relevant the insights. The main characteristics of Big Data, namely volume, variety, and velocity (the three Vs), readily apply to the kind of data that is used for political campaigns. In addition to the structured data (e.g., detail records of previous campaigns, census data, market research, and poll data), vast volumes and a variety of social media (e.g., tweets at Twitter, Facebook wall posts, blog posts) and Web data (Web pages, news articles, newsgroups) are used to learn more about voters and obtain deeper insights to enforce or change their opinions. Often, the search and browsing histories of individuals are captured and made available to customers (political analysts) who can use such data for better insight and behavioral targeting. If done correctly, Big Data and analytics can provide invaluable information to manage political campaigns better than ever before
From predicting election outcomes to targeting potential voters and donors, Big Data and analytics have a lot to offer to modern-day election campaigns. In fact, they have changed the way presidential election campaigns are run. In the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, the major political parties (Republican and Democratic) employed social media and data-driven analytics for a more effective and efficient campaign, but as many agree, the Democrats clearly had the competitive advantage (Issenberg, 2012). Obama’s 2012 data and analytics-driven operation was far more
