Influence Activities & Big Data Data-Intensive Transformations or the Politics of a Practice?

Abstract

Big Data and influence activities, two topics of immense importance, have seldom been analysed as a tandem. At first glance, one might assume that Big Data is an incredible resource for influence practitioners, however, Big Data is far from a panacea when it comes understanding the social world, and actually throws up problems in numerous instances. While solutions to these problems do exist, access to these is contingent on practitioners’ interpretations of the utility of the technology and their ability to reimagine their practice in light of what it might offer. The following project is a sociological examination using those interpretations as empirical evidence to explain the turn to datafication within the influence practitioner community. This project argues that viewing Big Data solely from an instrumental perspective is wrong, and that any fascination with this technology must be tempered against the sociological realities into which it is introduced as well its own limitations. Beyond the breathless media hype surrounding Big Data, these sociological variables, as this project makes clear, delineate the contours of what datafication can possibly provide as a resource.