CUSPE Workshops present ‘How to Target your Message – Learning from Psychometricians, Election Pollsters and Communication Experts‘ on 16th November 2017 from 6.00 pm to 8.00 pm at the Barbara White Room, Newnham College.

***Places for the workshop are limited to 40 attendees so please tell us how you will benefit from attending the workshop at the end of the registration form. We will send a confirmation email to you if you have secured a place.***

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cuspe-workshop-how-to-target-your-message-learning-from-psychometricians-election-pollsters-and-registration-39397363575

Event description:

You might know your science very well, but do you know your audience? While targeted messaging is a common practice among politicians, businesses and the press, scientists can be slow to realise that facts alone do not always convince. We believe that “if you can’t beat them, join them”. We have invited experts from the fields of psychometrics, polling and communications to share with us their expertise. Join us if you are interested in understanding why people think the way they do about certain policies, advertisements or a newspaper headlines. Not to forget, the lessons from the workshop will surely be applicable to how you frame your own research!

Speakers:

Joe Twyman, founding director of YouGov. Currently the Head of Political and Social Research for Europe, Middle East and Africa. Having dedicated his career to election studies, often in foreign countries, Joe is frequently featured on major TV channels providing expert election analysis.

Vesselin Popov, the Business Development Director of the Psychometric Centre of the Cambridge Judge Business School. His expertise is on the use of Big Data Psychology in developing products strategies.

Sam Jeffers, the Co-founder of Who Targets Me?, a project that investigates and monitors how politicians are trying to win your vote through targeted Facebook advertising.

 

Event will be followed by a drinks reception.

October 30, 18:30-20:00 followed by reception

Cripps Court Auditorium (Chesterton Road, near Magdalene College main court)

Sign up here.

Big Data, Psychometrics, targeted advertising: Data Science is changing how politicians and other influencers interact with the public.

“Dark Ads” on Facebook are only shown to people with specific views, tailored to their interests and fears. Do they prevent the public debates that are so fundamental to democracy? Do psychometrics and the merging of methods from Data Science and psychology allow manipulation of public opinion on an unprecedented scale? Or is this all just exaggerated by the media and nothing has fundamentally changed? On the contrary, does data journalism provide a great opportunity for a well informed public debate?

Join us on to discuss these recent developments with the following speakers:

Dr. Mark Pack, co-author of 101 Ways To Win An Election and former Head of Innovations at the Liberal Democrats where he ran the party’s 2001 and 2005 internet general election campaigns (www.markpack.org.uk)

Megan Lucero, Director of the “data crunching hub” The Bureau Local at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Formerly the Data Journalism Editor at The Times and Sunday Times (www.thebureauinvestigates.com/profile/meganlucero)

Dr. David Stillwell, Deputy Director of The Psychometrics Centre at the University of Cambridge and Lecturer in Big Data Analytics and Quantitative Social Science at the Cambridge Judge Business School (www.davidstillwell.co.uk)

 

Image by “gdsteam” publicly available on flickr under the creative commons licence (CC BY 2.0)