The Politics of Information Technology

Informed decision-making is an integral part of the government. Without informed decision-making, life-changing policies and laws may be enacted that could negatively impact a country, a state, a municipality because of lack of foresight, lack of statistics, and lack of knowledge on a key issue. So how does Information Technology play a role in informed decision-making? Information Technology allows policy makers and politicians to gain a better perspective on issues and assessing effectiveness of policies by allowing them to see the data available in an easy to digest manner. For example, Information Technology allows quantifiable data to be analyzed with results showing either improvement, no change, or negative change.

According to Milkavoich and Gordon, there is an ongoing push for politicians and elected representatives to place their focus on immediate political decisions instead of long-term policies or values that require thoughtful insight to develop and assess like increased productivity (p. 431). Because of this, there is a growing need to get information to politicians as quickly as possible in an easy to absorb manner. That means using Information Technology to collect data through surveys and applying statistical analysis or qualitative analysis to information that will yield results that can be transformed into simple, easy to read information.

An example of this in the private and commercial sector is online reviews. Information Technology has made it easy for people to post their opinion online regarding how good products are. Thanks to the ease and convenience of smart phones where people can take pictures and upload them for product reviews, consumers are able to make informed decisions easily rather than spending time looking for the efficacy of a product. Thanks to consumer reviews, people can make quick and informed decisions. “Along with the growth of Internet and electronic commerce, online consumer reviews have become an important source of information that assists consumers to make purchase decision” (Zhang, Zhao, Cheung, & Lee, 2014, p. 78).

Information Technology has become an integral part of informed decision-making. If one looks to the past, Obama was able to use the power of social media to inform voters of the issues in the United States and how these issues could affect the average American. He did this by providing informative posts across various social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, to allow American citizens to be informed from the convenience of their computer. Rather than just relying on speeches to get millions to understand key issues, Former President Obama relied on the then new platform of social media to grab people’s attention and keep them informed.

Qualitative data were collected from social media tools used by the Obama ‘08 campaign (e.g., Obama ‘08 Web site, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, e-mails, iPhone application, and the Change.gov site created by the Obama-Biden Transition Team) and public information. The authors find that the Obama ‘08 campaign created a nationwide virtual organization that motivated 3.1 million individual contributors and mobilized a grassroots movement of more than 5 million volunteers. Clearly, the Obama campaign utilized these tools to go beyond educating the public and raising money to mobilizing the ground game, enhancing political participation, and getting out the vote (Cogburn & Espinoza-Vasquez, 2011, p. 189).
Innovation in information Technology and the use of such innovation to keep people informed has always been part of politics. However, as information Technology has witnessed a steep incline in innovation, politicians need to maintain that same level of use as before to allow for continued improvements in educating political leaders and the American public in issues and efficacy of existing legislation. Without adapting to the new ways of using Information Technology, politicians may not have the same ability to clarify issues and performed needed assessments for efficacy.
Along with the power of social media and elections, Information Technology to help informed decision-making is especially important regarding budget-making decisions and ensuring efficacy of programs and how resources allotted are used (Milakovich & Gordon, 2013, p. 422). Milakovich and Gordon discuss in an earlier chapter, information theory. “information theory is based on the view that organizations require information to prevent them from evolving to a state of chaos or randomness in their operations” (Milakovich & Gordon, 2013, p. 165). If laws and decisions are needed to be made promptly or budgeting decisions, there needs to be a fast and efficient way to get information to bureaucrats without sacrificing quality. Information Technology allows for that thanks to the constant innovations being carried out in recent years.
Aside from being informed of basic information, those in charge of decision-making in politics must also be informed of the risks of any decision and potential outcomes. Milakovich and Gordon discuss this on page 195 of their text. They write that decision makers need to assess the potential of failure for decisions they may make and thus require data to keep the informed. Accuracy of that data is imperative as it could undermine or accelerate the decision-making process. Quantitative data is often used for its accuracy because data is quantified and then analyzed. Such analysis requires the use of information Information Technology like statistical software to provide the kind of results needed that are impossible to do without said Information Technology.

Researching, citing sources, and taking bits of information from studies cannot be done quickly unless Information Technology is used. Comparative analysis has grown in popularity and use since the 1960’s. “aided by the popularity of quantitative analysis and the development of data archives, although such research tends to focus upon the industrialized nations, and upon studies in the field of international relations” (Harrison & Startin, 2013, p. 9). Without Information Technology to perform quantitative analysis, people cannot provide the data needed to make informed decisions.

Big data and use of it has grown and has begun to reach full use in politics. Political campaigns use big data to understand the voter and target campaigns and issues on their platform accordingly. An example of this is the recent presidential election. Though some believe the Clinton campaign was at the forefront of big data sophistication and use of big data, the Trump campaign purchased data as well from big data companies like L2 and other data vendors.

"The Trump campaign tapped data and analytics firms," Westcott said, "to micro-target individuals by building complex turnout models and using predictive analytics. Many believe the Trump campaign was purely an earned media machine that won because of tweets and TV appearances. In both the primary and general, predictive models were heavily used by the Trump team to target and speak to 'likely Trump voters (Patterson, 2017).
If big data can be used to garner voters, it can also be used to make informed decisions regarding budget and policy. Huge surveys can be introduced to see which programs help the American public and which do not. That information can be analyzed and put into simple charts that illustrate program and policy efficacy. Such practices are already seen in businesses with much success, especially in regards to marketing and customer reach.

Politicians needs the extra information to quickly and accurately form their decisions. They cannot do that without the use of Information Technology. One last example of how information technology helps in informed decision-making is the ability to understand constituents and their needs. As previously stated big data can help generate a clearer picture of what is out there regarding effects of existing policies and needs of the American public. However, information technology can also be used to allow concerned citizens to voice their concern for a specific issue.
An example of this is the White House petition website. People there can start a petition and if 100,000 people sign it, then the White House will respond. This is an opportunity for people in Congress to address and understand the needs of the American public. Without these kinds of websites, American citizens cannot voice their concern for certain issues, laws, and policies.