A few interesting books if anyone is interested:
The Vanishing Voter, Thomas E Patterson
Mass Media and American Politics, Doris A. Graber
Not something "you can't put down" but interesting none the less!
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Saturday, December 8, 2012
The New Republican Party
Is all the hype about restructuring the Republican Party just that, hype? Does all the talk really mean anything or did we hear these same words after the defeat in '08? I'm not sure anything will happen, four years will pass, the Republican base will shrink even further and they'll be scratching their heads with another defeat in 2016.
Here is an article on what the Republicans are thinking post-defeat. Not sounding like too much change is going on!
"So here is the Republican Party reinventing itself. The GOP majority in the Ohio legislature rushes to defund Planned Parenthood in its post-election session. The orange-tinted speaker of the House proposes to undo Obamacare through “oversight” in the name of “solving our debt and restoring prosperity.” Never mind that health-care reform doesn’t raise the deficit but reduces it. Or that “a new low,” 33 percent of Americans, the anti-Obama bitter-enders, still favor repealing the law (PDF). And a rising star in the GOP future, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, offers a dim view out of the pre-Darwinian past that maybe the Earth was created in seven days—and that since “theologians” disagree, we should teach “multiple theories.”
"This doesn’t sound like rethinking, or thinking at all, but like the reflex and revanchism of a party that doesn’t comprehend or simply can’t respond to the dimensions of its 2012 defeat."
It will take a lot of "Danny-types" to turn this around.
Here is an article on what the Republicans are thinking post-defeat. Not sounding like too much change is going on!
"So here is the Republican Party reinventing itself. The GOP majority in the Ohio legislature rushes to defund Planned Parenthood in its post-election session. The orange-tinted speaker of the House proposes to undo Obamacare through “oversight” in the name of “solving our debt and restoring prosperity.” Never mind that health-care reform doesn’t raise the deficit but reduces it. Or that “a new low,” 33 percent of Americans, the anti-Obama bitter-enders, still favor repealing the law (PDF). And a rising star in the GOP future, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, offers a dim view out of the pre-Darwinian past that maybe the Earth was created in seven days—and that since “theologians” disagree, we should teach “multiple theories.”
"This doesn’t sound like rethinking, or thinking at all, but like the reflex and revanchism of a party that doesn’t comprehend or simply can’t respond to the dimensions of its 2012 defeat."
It will take a lot of "Danny-types" to turn this around.
Sunday, December 2, 2012
It Comes Down to Data
"Voters may not recognize just how much campaigning has evolved. The house looks the same, he said, but the plumbing's gotten extremely complicated."
Capturing what we do via the web or TV.
This is the data guy who headed up Dreamcatcher: "Rayid Ghani, the man who has been named Obama’s “chief scientist.”
I guess they listened: "Those familiar with Dreamcatcher describe it as a bet on text analytics to make sense of a whole genre of personal information that no one has ever systematically collected or put to use in politics. Obama’s targeters hope the project will allow them to make more sophisticated decisions about which voters to approach and what to say to them. “It’s not about us trying to leverage the information we have to better predict what people are doing. It’s about us being better listeners,” says a campaign official. “When a million people are talking to you at once it’s hard to listen to everything, and we need text analytics and other tools to make sense of what everyone is saying in a structured way.”
A new term, Microlistening: "St. Clair is among more than a dozen developers hired by the campaign to leverage technology to wring out more votes in what Obama’s advisers say may be an election as close as the contested 2000 race between George W. Bush and Al Gore. From Seattle startups to International Business Machines Corp., they’ve left lucrative jobs to mine for swing voters. They've added a new term to the strategic lexicon: microlistening."
“The things we did in 2008 in many ways were prehistoric by contemporary standards,” Axelrod said at a Dec. 7 Bloomberg View lunch. “There’s a lot you can do in the way of more finely targeting voters so they’re getting information that’s useful to them.”
"It comes down to data -- collecting voter information, synthesizing it and making use of it most effectively. The data comes from conversations on the ground and behavioral patterns on the website. Analysts may try to determine how to best target a voter who gives $5 to participate in a raffle to have dinner with the president versus $5 during a Republican debate."
Capturing what we do via the web or TV.
This is the data guy who headed up Dreamcatcher: "Rayid Ghani, the man who has been named Obama’s “chief scientist.”
I guess they listened: "Those familiar with Dreamcatcher describe it as a bet on text analytics to make sense of a whole genre of personal information that no one has ever systematically collected or put to use in politics. Obama’s targeters hope the project will allow them to make more sophisticated decisions about which voters to approach and what to say to them. “It’s not about us trying to leverage the information we have to better predict what people are doing. It’s about us being better listeners,” says a campaign official. “When a million people are talking to you at once it’s hard to listen to everything, and we need text analytics and other tools to make sense of what everyone is saying in a structured way.”
A new term, Microlistening: "St. Clair is among more than a dozen developers hired by the campaign to leverage technology to wring out more votes in what Obama’s advisers say may be an election as close as the contested 2000 race between George W. Bush and Al Gore. From Seattle startups to International Business Machines Corp., they’ve left lucrative jobs to mine for swing voters. They've added a new term to the strategic lexicon: microlistening."
“The things we did in 2008 in many ways were prehistoric by contemporary standards,” Axelrod said at a Dec. 7 Bloomberg View lunch. “There’s a lot you can do in the way of more finely targeting voters so they’re getting information that’s useful to them.”
"It comes down to data -- collecting voter information, synthesizing it and making use of it most effectively. The data comes from conversations on the ground and behavioral patterns on the website. Analysts may try to determine how to best target a voter who gives $5 to participate in a raffle to have dinner with the president versus $5 during a Republican debate."
Somebody's Watching Me
I guess it is a good thing that all we basically watch on TV is sports and politics (the boys will turn on Family Guy until I walk into the room) as it makes the job of these data mining companies easier! Van Doren Family = Sports (Giants/Yankees) and Politics, done.
The company mentioned in Colin's article, Rentrak, has interesting results from the final debate, who watched, where...
"Rentrak's television ratings measurement service provides daily measurement of all TV networks nationally and at a granular level for TV stations in all 210 media markets nationwide. The service incorporates information from over 20 million televisions and is the only fully integrated system of detailed satellite, telco and cable TV viewing data commercially available."
They're watching us watch! It is the same as when I go to the grocery store and everything I purchase is recorded and I receive coupons in the mail for the items I buy. When I go on Facebook the advertisements that appear are oddly enough items or brands that I have purchased in the past! At least it is not stalking in the standard way but electronic consumer stalking, hoping I will purchase something. In November, it was a President. A little creepy for me. I may just throw some odd show in thereat home now and again now. Suggestions?
The company mentioned in Colin's article, Rentrak, has interesting results from the final debate, who watched, where...
"Rentrak's television ratings measurement service provides daily measurement of all TV networks nationally and at a granular level for TV stations in all 210 media markets nationwide. The service incorporates information from over 20 million televisions and is the only fully integrated system of detailed satellite, telco and cable TV viewing data commercially available."
They're watching us watch! It is the same as when I go to the grocery store and everything I purchase is recorded and I receive coupons in the mail for the items I buy. When I go on Facebook the advertisements that appear are oddly enough items or brands that I have purchased in the past! At least it is not stalking in the standard way but electronic consumer stalking, hoping I will purchase something. In November, it was a President. A little creepy for me. I may just throw some odd show in thereat home now and again now. Suggestions?
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