Digital advertising: Discrimination, bias, and strategies for equity
Advertisers have always sought to effectively reach their target markets, and their practices for doing that date back to the early days of newspapers, magazines, radio and television, billboards, and other media. Where you can buy or rent a home, how and at what cost you can borrow money, and which jobs you are able to apply for, all depend on access to information. There can sometimes be legitimate reasons for and advantages to targeting a specific population group for a message or offer, but it has often been the means by which discrimination on the basis of race, gender, neighborhood, or other characteristics is carried out, resulting in massive and persistent inequities.
Digital technology and the internet have changed just about everything about targeted advertising and marketing, and we need new ways to understand, measure, and address the new forms of bias and discrimination. Two reports commissioned by PolicyLink, with the support of the NetGain Partnership, managed by the Media Democracy Fund, provide extensive background, insights, and thoughtful guidance about the domain of digital advertising.
Charlton McIlwain and Danaë Metaxa, leading scholars on technology and social issues, describe how digital advertising has evolved and how discrimination and bias can be assessed. In “Algorithmic Discrimination: A Framework and Approach to Auditing & Measuring the Impact of Race-Targeted Digital Advertising,” McIlwain uses the case of consumer lending to show how large databases and the internet have been applied to target predominantly Black neighborhoods for predatory practices. In “Bias and Discrimination in Digital Advertising,” Metaxa illustrates how the techniques of digital auditing can be deployed to identify discriminatory methods and outcomes. Their reports provide a road map through this important and rapidly changing field and possibilities for policy responses to address inequities.
- Danaë Metaxa, PhD (University of Pennsylvania), "Bias and Discrimination in Digital Advertising"
- Dr. Charlton McIlwain, Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication (New York University), "Algorithmic Discrimination: A Framework and Approach to Auditing & Measuring the Impact of Race-Targeted Digital Advertising"