Three Consequences of Big Data on the Practices and Scholarships of Political Communication

Giglietto, F. (2020). Three Consequences of Big Data on the Practices and Scholarships of Political Communication. COMUNICAZIONE POLITICA. https://doi.org/10.3270/96423

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Summary

This conceptual essay argues that big data and pervasive connected technologies have reshaped political communication along three interlocking vectors: the blurring of political organizational boundaries through networked publics, the rise of micro-targeted political advertising, and new dynamics of strategic attention and amplification within a hybrid media system. Giglietto contends that each vector generates distinct methodological and conceptual difficulties for researchers — particularly around measuring exposure, accessing platform data, and distinguishing official from unofficial political actors — and that these vectors interact to produce a state of “permanent potential influence” that eludes existing regulatory and analytical frameworks.

Key Contributions

• Proposes an integrative three-vector framework (networked publics, micro-targeting, attention/amplification) for analyzing how big data restructures political communication.
• Diagnoses specific methodological problems for the field: obsolete source lists, weakened exposure concepts, and inadequate platform APIs (notably Facebook’s Ad Library).
• Bridges contemporary platform phenomena with classical communication theory (Lazarsfeld, Granovetter, Meyrowitz).
• Frames a policy tension between platform transparency initiatives and the persistence of unregulated fringe amplification.

Methods

Conceptual/theoretical essay synthesizing prior literature. Uses illustrative cases (Cambridge Analytica, Facebook Ad Library, Twitter’s political ad ban, Occupy, Indignados, Five Star Movement, Podemos) and a critical review of methodological shortcomings in existing political communication research.

Findings

• Networked collaboration yields skewed contribution distributions — small dedicated cores plus many occasional participants — enabling loose coalitions to rival formal organizations.
• Unofficially affiliated fringe groups can support mainstream candidates while granting plausible deniability, undermining analyses tied to official channels.
• Facebook’s Ad Library, despite its scale (5M+ ads, ~$900M in U.S. spend from May 2018), lacks the targeting granularity needed to assess exposure.
• Social media’s flattened display format weakens outlet brand cues, making self-reported media exposure unreliable.
• Engagement metrics (likes, shares, retweets) are only weak proxies for actual attention or exposure.
• Micro-targeting enables contradictory messaging to narrow audiences, though evidence of strong persuasive effects remains thin.

Connections

This essay lays conceptual groundwork that later empirical work by the same author extends, particularly on coordinated amplification and platform-based political communication — see Giglietto2024-cbeb3f70, Giglietto2022-b30e8b4e, Giglietto2026-632ef967, Giglietto2026-855a54cb, and Marino2024-2fbc690f, as well as earlier hybrid-media work in Iannelli2018-ebd918b7 and Iannelli2015-e0818c3e. Its concerns about exposure measurement and platform data access resonate with critiques of engagement-based inference and the limits of Ad Library-style transparency tools discussed in Rieder2025-ju and Freelon2024-sc, while its skepticism about micro-targeting’s persuasive power connects to broader debates on social media effects reflected in Bakshy2015-rn and Allen2025-ot.