Algorithms and Political Advertising w/ Katherine Jensen: August 17th 2026

An RNZ analysis of election-year Facebook and Instagram advertising has found a clear gender divide in who is seeing different parties’ ads, with National and ACT reaching more men and the Greens reaching more women. But political parties do not have complete control over those audiences, with Meta’s algorithms also deciding who is most likely to see and engage with particular messages. Producer Pranuja spoke to University of Auckland marketing lecturer Katherine Jensen about how AI and platform algorithms are shaping political advertising, whether voters are being shown increasingly different versions of the same campaign, and whether New Zealand’s election rules are keeping up.