Online Advertising: Data, Materiality, Systematicity and Power

在线广告：数据、实质性、系统性和力量

基本信息

批准号：
ES/V015362/1
负责人：
Donald MacKenzie
金额：
$ 65.4万
依托单位：
University of Edinburgh
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2022
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2022 至无数据
项目状态：
未结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FV015362%2F1
关键词：
Online Advertising Data Materiality Systematicity

项目摘要

In the first half of 2019, advertisers spent $57.9 bn on online advertising in the US and £7.3 bn in the UK (IAB 2019a&b). Traditional advertising - especially print, already in eclipse - has been hit hard by the coronavirus crisis, but online advertising, particularly on the top platforms, much less so (Barker 2020). It is expected to continue to grow, especially if the shift to e-commerce is permanent, and revenues from it finance much of the everyday digital world (search, social media, email services, apps, etc) as well as, eg, crucial outlets for serious journalism. Online's share of political advertising, negligible a decade ago, rose in the UK to 23.9% in 2015 and 42.8% in 2017 (Electoral Commission 2018: 4). Yet surprisingly little research in science and technology studies, sociology or politics has focused in any depth on the practices of online advertising. We will examine how online advertising has developed from simple 'renting' of space on websites to today's 'real-time bidding'. Many millions of times a day, the momentary opportunity to show an advertisement to a specific individual user triggers an instantaneous automated auction, with bidding algorithms being provided with, eg, details of the user's device and location, and often a 'cookie' (a text file previously deposited in the user's browser) or other identifier, which can be linked to data such as the user's age band, gender, interests and browsing history (including uncompleted purchases and perhaps even mouse 'hovers'). We will research how data is generated (not just by the now-familiar 'cookies', but by less well-known techniques such as 'pixels': tiny invisible images downloaded by users' devices) and how it is used to 'target' ads, inform automated bidding, and measure advertising's success. We will examine how and why advertising technology takes the material forms that it does, including the effects of material constraints such as the need to bid in online auctions within around a tenth of a second, and investigate the relationship of advertising's materiality to diverse forms of power and politics, such as the 'market power' of the field's giants such as Google and Facebook, the impact of the politics and law of privacy (eg the EU's General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR), and the 'material politics' of the choices among ways of configuring crucial technical systems. Our research will combine investigation of current practices and debates with examination of the historical processes of their emergence (including the migration of the techniques of digital advertising into electoral politics and political campaigning). Preparatory fieldwork has given us the contacts to conduct audio/video interviewing until coronavirus risk has been minimized sufficiently to permit face-to-face interviews and observational ethnography (in relevant firms and at advertising's many industry meetings). Where possible, we will conduct multiple repeat interviews with key informants. Analysis of primary-source documents, often technical in nature, will supplement and serve as a way of crosschecking fieldwork findings.We will achieve impact beyond academia by providing unbiased information and research-based findings to practitioners, policymakers and the general public. The UK has by far the largest online advertising sector in Europe (Adshead et al 2019: 36); the sector's skills could be an important economic resource for the UK after its transitional arrangements with the EU end. But crucial policy issues remain to be resolved. Eg, the Information Commissioner's Office has said that data dissemination/processing for real-time bidding 'is taking place unlawfully' (ICO 2019: 23). The Competition and Markets Authority has suggested that concentrated market power in advertising may be undermining competition and harming consumers (CMA 2019&2020), and the Electoral Commission (2018) has called for greatly enhanced transparency in political advertising.

2019 年上半年，广告商在美国的在线广告上花费了 579 亿美元，在英国花费了 73 亿英镑（IAB 2019a&b）。传统广告——尤其是已经黯然失色的印刷广告——受到了冠状病毒危机的严重打击，但在线广告却受到了严重打击。广告，特别是在顶级平台上，预计将继续增长，特别是如果向电子商务的转变是永久性的，并且由此产生的收入。为日常数字世界（搜索、社交媒体、电子邮件服务、应用程序等）以及严肃新闻的重要渠道提供资金的金融机构在英国的政治广告份额在十年前还可以忽略不计，现已上升至 23.9%。 2015 年和 2017 年分别为 42.8%（Electoral Commission 2018：4），但令人惊讶的是，科学技术研究、社会学或政治学领域很少有研究深入关注在线实践。我们将研究在线广告如何从简单的网站空间“租赁”发展到今天的“实时竞价”，向特定个人用户展示广告的瞬间机会会触发瞬间。自动拍卖，出价算法提供用户设备和位置的详细信息，通常还提供“cookie”（先前存储在用户浏览器中的文本文件）或其他标识符，这些标识符可以链接到诸如用户的年龄乐队、性别、浏览历史记录（包括未完成的购买，甚至可能是鼠标“悬停”）我们将研究数据是如何生成的（不仅通过现在熟悉的兴趣“cookie”，还通过不太知名的技术（例如“像素”）。：用户设备下载的微小的不可见图像）以及如何使用它来“定位”广告、通知自动竞价以及衡量广告的成功程度。我们将研究广告技术如何以及为何采用其所具有的物质形式，包括其效果。的物质限制，例如由于需要在大约十分之一秒内进行在线拍卖竞标，并调查广告的重要性与各种形式的权力和政治的关系，例如谷歌和 Facebook 等该领域巨头的“市场力量”，其影响隐私的政治和法律（例如欧盟的通用数据保护条例或 GDPR），以及配置关键技术系统的方式之间的选择的“物质政治”。他们的历史进程的出现（包括将数字广告技术迁移到选举政治和政治竞选中），准备性实地工作为我们提供了进行音频/视频采访的联系方式，直到冠状病毒风险已充分降至最低，以允许进行面对面采访和观察民族志。（在相关公司和广告业的许多行业会议上）我们将对主要来源文件（通常是技术性的）进行多次重复采访。我们将补充并作为交叉检查实地调查结果的一种方式。将取得超越英国拥有迄今为止欧洲最大的在线广告行业（Adshead et al 2019：36）；英国与欧盟的过渡安排结束后，但关键的政策问题仍有待解决，例如，信息专员办公室表示，实时招标的数据传播/处理“正在非法进行”。（ICO 2019：23）竞争和市场管理局表示，广告中的集中市场力量可能会破坏竞争并损害消费者（CMA 2019＆2020），选举委员会（2018）呼吁大幅提高政治广告的透明度。