Ethics in Narrowcasting

Successful political campaigns have a message that represents the candidate's views. Getting that message out to the voters is the goal of the campaign. It is not just about what the message says, but how the message is presented and how it reaches specific voters. As technology becomes more and more integrated into the lives of Americans, it was only a matter of time before candidates started utilizing the Internet, just as they had TV and Radio, as a means to deliver their message to the voters. In any marketing campaign, targeting, or defining a specific audience to get a specific message to, is crucial to making sure the right people are getting the right message. Unlike TV and Radio targeting, Internet targeting and marketing is unique because it is a totally new venue for communication. Cookies are the future.

There are some ethical concerns in relation to the privacy of individuals and how they are targeted by candidates and companies via the Internet. The privacy issue stems from the fact that individuals do not willingly give permission to be solicited to on the internet. Surfers and the website they view are tracked, via cookies, and those cookies are stored by companies and later sold to candidates and campaigns for solicitation purposes.

NOTES TO PONDER: Why haven't ethical concerns in narrowcasting been addressed earlier? How far is too far?