Seven weeks to polling day: what The Briefing will cover

Hi, Liz here. I haven’t broken the fourth wall in a while, so here is a little scheduling note. (And if you are new here - welcome!)

We finally have a date - October 24th - for the Presidential Election, and I’ve cooked up a plan for this newsletter for the 7 weeks we have between now and then.  

I’m planning 2 posts a week; each one with a short, mostly data-driven analysis piece (350-500 words), and then a couple of recommendations for both election & tech policy reads / listens I think are worth your time. 

I won’t be getting into the horse race of it all, there will be plenty of that. I’m interested in the campaign dynamics, what it all tells us about our democracy, our culture, our economy, technology, and where we might be going. 

I’m going to be looking at:

• Money in campaigning (I’ve been hunting down financial returns from Presidential Elections past to play with)
• How planned “bans”of digital political ads will play out (more on that here)
• What any viral moments tell us
• Maybe a bit of what is happening elsewhere (France’s parliament will likely collapse next week; Netherlands vote a few days after us, there will be Mamdani drama)

And perhaps a short guest post, things like that. 

This is the call to action bit 

If you know someone who might find all this interesting, do forward this email to them, or drop the link (thebriefing.ie) in the WhatsApp group.

And thank you for engaging with this newsletter; there are about a thousand of you, and I really do appreciate every bit of feedback, ideas or tips, which as always, you can do but replying to this email, or tagging me (I’m usually @LizCarolan) on your social media app of choice. 

ICYMI

• Simon McGarr has a great summary of the runners and riders in the election over on The Gist 
• I had fun reviewing the papers on Brendan O’Connor’s show on Sunday, where despite being an elder millennial, I somehow ended up the voice of the youth; listen here