Digital Ad Engagement

As I usually focus on user engagement with news stories or political messages, the reading materials related to advertising provided me with new lens to look at online engagement. According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, ad engagement is a spectrum of "activities and experiences – cognitive, emotional, and physical – that will have a positive impact on a Brand" (p. 6). While I think that the three offered forms of engagement could also be applied to messages pertaining to public affairs, achieving "a positive impact" may be more complicated in a political context. If, for example, people keep posting or reading nasty comments, or start using Facebook's dislike button, would it have a positive impact on political attitudes and participation? It could also make things worse

  In addition, it was interesting to read about Facebook advertising, as I was not aware of some ad options. As a Facebook user I will probably be more suspicious when I look at my newsfeed. I do not  know to what extent these ads are effective, but advertisers are willing to spend more money on .Facebook ads, as indicated by Pew's report