Philly 2014 Political Ad Trends Viewer


Trends Viewer: Philly Political Media Watch Project

Welcome to the interactive Trends Viewer tool designed to allow you to explore the data underlying the Philly Political Media Watch Project of the Internet Archive's TV News Archive! From September 1, 2014 through the election of November 4, 2014, 7 television stations in the Philadelphia market were monitored to identify all politically-related advertisements. In all, 74 distinct political advertisements were identified which collectively aired 13,675 times during the 65 day monitoring period. Each advertisement was assessed for time devoted to functional content, using the approach elaborated by William Benoit, Ph.D., most recently in his 2014 book, A Functional Analysis of Political Television Advertisements. Archive staff scored each ad along the dimensions of "Acclaim" (positive comments about candidate), "Attack" (negative comments about opposing candidate), and "Defend" (defending candidate against attacks by opposing candidate), along with typing up a transcript of its spoken content. A similar approach was taken by a team at the University of Delaware's Center for Community Research and Service lead by Associate Professor Danilo Yanich, in their study, Political Ads & Local TV News - Philly 2014.

Note that you will find some oddities in the data due to the way in which the human coding cataloged the advertisements. Each ad was categorized with the name of the primary candidate discussed, meaning that an attack ad run by one candidate against another will be cataloged under the second one's name, even if the other half of the advertisement lauds the candidate running the ad. This will yield nuanced results, such as comparing the ads focusing on Aimee Belgard vs those sponsored on her behalf.

This tool allows you to interactively explore and visualize the resulting trends (the raw datasets are also available for download). Using the form below, you can select any pair of candidates, parties, races, status, win/lost, sponsor, sponsor type, television channel, or even keywords found in the transcripts, or any combination therein, to compare their respective trends during the 2014 election cycle. If you specify multiple options they will be combined together. For example, you can compare ads focusing on Tom Corbett that were paid by Tom Corbett for Governor vs those paid for by Tom Wolf for Governor. Or, compare all ads mentioning the two candidates from any sponsor. Or ads focusing on candidates that ultimately won vs lost. Or, compare the ads run by the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers vs those run by the House Majority PAC. Or, those mentioning "school" vs "job" in the transcript of the ad. Or, simply, view the overall trends for all 13,675 advertisement airings.

Search #1

Use the dropdowns below to select your first query.
You can select multiple options and they will be combined together.

Focal Candidate:
Focal Candidate Party:
Focal Candidate Status:
Focal Race:
Focal Candidate Outcome:
Ad Sponsor:
Ad Sponsor Type:
Television Channel:
Transcript Keyword:


Search #2

Use the dropdowns below to select your second query.
You can select multiple options and they will be combined together.

Focal Candidate:
Focal Candidate Party:
Focal Candidate Status:
Focal Race:
Focal Candidate Outcome:
Ad Sponsor:
Ad Sponsor Type:
Television Channel:
Transcript Keyword:

Select All Advertisements:





Summary Statistics

The four charts below offer a summary of overall trends. See the description under each graph for more detail on what it shows.



Total number of airings of all ads matching your queries

Total airtime of advertisements in minutes, broken down by the functional type expressed: Acclaim (praising the candidate), Attack (attacking the other candidate), or Defend (countering attacks made by the other candidate)



Total airtime (in minutes) of advertisements, broken down by television channel, making it possible to see where advertising time was focused and any differences in the kinds of ads run on each channel. Airtime is further broken down by the functional type expressed: Acclaim (praising the candidate), Attack (attacking the other candidate), or Defend (countering attacks made by the other candidate).



Total airtime (in minutes) of advertisements, broken down by the primary candidate focused on by the ad. An ad may mention multiple candidates, but it is cataloged under the focal candidate that was mentioned the most. Airtime is further broken down by the functional type expressed: Acclaim (praising the candidate), Attack (attacking the other candidate), or Defend (countering attacks made by the other candidate).



Total airtime (in minutes) of advertisements, broken down by the organization paying for the ad, making it possible to see who is paying for ads for/against a given candidate, etc. Airtime is further broken down by the functional type expressed: Acclaim (praising the candidate), Attack (attacking the other candidate), or Defend (countering attacks made by the other candidate).



Total airtime (in minutes) of advertising each candidate ran in shows starting during each hour, making it easy to see what times of day they targeted most heavily



Daily Timeline

The timeline below summarizes the total airtime of advertisements by day over the entire 65 day period, with results for "Philadelphia Federation of Teachers" shown to the left of the center line and results for "House Majority PAC" shown to the right. Airtime is further broken down by the functional type expressed: Acclaim (praising the candidate), Attack (attacking the other candidate), or Defend (countering attacks made by the other candidate).




Ad Listing

The thumbnails below show all of the distinct advertisements matching your queries, ordered by how many times each was aired (see the number below each thumbnail). Click on any thumbnail to view a sample airing of that advertisement.

Advertisements Featuring "Philadelphia Federation of Teachers"

Times Aired: 260

Advertisements Featuring "House Majority PAC"

Times Aired: 268



Show Listing

The specific television shows that a candidate runs their ads during offers powerful insights into the target demographics being sought by each candidate. The tables below summarize the total number of airings of ads matching your criteria that were run during each television show over the 65 day period. For selected news programming, a preview link is provided to view a sample airing of one of the advertisements that ran during that show.

All Shows Featuring "Philadelphia Federation of Teachers"

RankShowAiringsPreview
1Action News18View
2Good Day Philadelphia16View
3Eyewitness News at 613View
4Good Morning America10View
5Action News at Ten on PHL179View
6Action News 600 PM8View
7Today7View
8The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon7
9Family Feud7
10NBC 10 News at 11p7View
11NBC 10 News at 6pm6View
12Eyewitness News at 116View
13CBS This Morning6View
14Nightline6View
15Fox 29 Morning News at 6a6View
16NBC 10 News Today at 600a6View
17Wheel of Fortune5
18The Peoples Court5
19Eyewitness News at 55View
20NBC 10 News at 5pm5View
21NFL Football4
22Late Show With David Letterman4
23NBC 10 News Today at 11a4View
24FOX 29 News at Five4View
25Action News 500 PM4View
26Lets Make a Deal4
27Fox 29 News at 6PM4View
28Dr. Phil4
29Judge Mathis4
30Judge Judy4
31Jimmy Kimmel Live3
32Action News Weekend3View
33Fox 29 News at 103View
34The Big Bang Theory3
35The Queen Latifah Show3
36Eyewitness News at 8am3View
37Good Day Philadelphia at 93View
38Modern Family2
3960 Minutes2View
40Action News Weekend 6AM2View
41Action News Weekend 7AM2View
42Action News 530 PM2View
43Blue Bloods2
44CBS This Morning Saturday2View
45Eyewitness News at 7am2View
46Face the Nation2View
47Who Wants to Be a Millionaire1
48The OT1
49The Price Is Right1
50NBC 10 News at 6am1View
51Americas Got Talent1
52Extant1
53CBS News Sunday Morning1View
54Bachelor in Paradise1
55Football Night in America1
56Under the Dome1
57NFL Kickoff 20141
58NFL Thursday Night Kickoff1
59Inside the Eagles1
60American Ninja Warrior1
61NBC 10 News at 4pm1View
62Action News at 1130 P1View
63Fox29 Sports Show1
64The Meredith Vieira Show1
65The Secret Lives of Pets With Hoda Kotb1
66NBC 10 News Today at 430a1View
6720/201
68Dateline NBC1View
69College Football1

All Shows Featuring "House Majority PAC"

RankShowAiringsPreview
1Action News18View
2Eyewitness News at 611View
3Judge Mathis10
4Eyewitness News at 510View
5Good Day Philadelphia8View
6Today8View
7Mike Molly8
8The Peoples Court8
9Hot Bench6
10Fox29 Weekend6
11Good Morning America6View
12Family Feud6
13Fox 29 News at 6PM5View
14Fox 29 Morning News at 6a5View
15FOX 29 News at Five4View
16Two and a Half Men4
17Action News 500 PM4View
18The Big Bang Theory4
19CBS Evening News With Scott Pelley4View
20Modern Family4
21Law Order Special Victims Unit4
22NBC 10 News at 6pm4View
23NBC Nightly News4View
24Eyewitness News at 114View
25Good Day Philadelphia at 94View
26NBC 10 News at 5pm4View
27Action News at 4pm4View
28Fox 29 Morning News at 5a4View
29NBC 10 News Today at 600a4View
30CBS This Morning4View
31Action News 600 PM4View
32NBC 10 News Today at 11a3View
33Dr. Phil3
34Jimmy Kimmel Live3
35The Price Is Right3
36Late Show With David Letterman3
37NBC 10 News at 11p3View
38Talk Philly3
39Action News at Ten on PHL173View
40Wheel of Fortune2
41NBC 10 News at 4pm2View
42Inside Edition2
43The King of Queens2
44The Young and the Restless2
45Action News Weekend2View
46The Doctors2
47Entertainment Tonight2
48Jeopardy2
49Daytime Jeopardy2
50Eyewitness News on the CW Philly2View
51The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon2
52The Talk2
53Countdown to the CMA Awards 15 Songs That Changed Country Music1
54TMZ1
55CBS News Sunday Morning1View
56Fox 29 News at 101View
57Celebrity Name Game1
58FOX NFL Sunday1
59Action News Weekend 6AM1View
60The Voice1
61NCIS New Orleans1
62Philly Pheud1
63Inside the Eagles1
64Live With Kelly and Michael1
65Chicago Fire1
66World Series Pregame1
67Fox 29 Game Day Live1
68Who Wants to Be a Millionaire1
69The Walking Dead1
70Eyewitness News at 6am1View
71NFL Football1
72NBC 10 News at 6am1View
73Maury1
74NBC 10 News Today at 530a1View
75Saturday Night Live1
76Eyewitness News at 7am1View
77Face the Nation1View
78Anger Management1
79Action News 530 AM1View
80College Football1
81Jerry Springer1
82Action News Weekend 7AM1View
83Blue Bloods1
84NBC 10 News Today at 500a1View
85Bones1
86CBS This Morning Saturday1View
87Eyewitness News at 5301View




The Philly Political Media Watch Project

See more information about this project.