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
7The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon7
8NBC 10 News at 11p7View
9Today7View
10Family Feud7
11Nightline6View
12CBS This Morning6View
13Eyewitness News at 116View
14Fox 29 Morning News at 6a6View
15NBC 10 News at 6pm6View
16NBC 10 News Today at 600a6View
17Wheel of Fortune5
18Eyewitness News at 55View
19The Peoples Court5
20NBC 10 News at 5pm5View
21FOX 29 News at Five4View
22NFL Football4
23Dr. Phil4
24Judge Mathis4
25Judge Judy4
26Lets Make a Deal4
27NBC 10 News Today at 11a4View
28Fox 29 News at 6PM4View
29Late Show With David Letterman4
30Action News 500 PM4View
31Eyewitness News at 8am3View
32The Big Bang Theory3
33Fox 29 News at 103View
34Action News Weekend3View
35Good Day Philadelphia at 93View
36Jimmy Kimmel Live3
37The Queen Latifah Show3
38Face the Nation2View
39Action News Weekend 6AM2View
40CBS This Morning Saturday2View
41Modern Family2
4260 Minutes2View
43Action News 530 PM2View
44Eyewitness News at 7am2View
45Blue Bloods2
46Action News Weekend 7AM2View
47NFL Kickoff 20141
48Who Wants to Be a Millionaire1
49The OT1
50Extant1
51CBS News Sunday Morning1View
52Action News at 1130 P1View
53Americas Got Talent1
54Football Night in America1
55The Secret Lives of Pets With Hoda Kotb1
56The Price Is Right1
57Under the Dome1
58NBC 10 News at 6am1View
59The Meredith Vieira Show1
6020/201
61NBC 10 News Today at 430a1View
62Inside the Eagles1
63NBC 10 News at 4pm1View
64American Ninja Warrior1
65Fox29 Sports Show1
66Dateline NBC1View
67NFL Thursday Night Kickoff1
68Bachelor in Paradise1
69College Football1

All Shows Featuring "House Majority PAC"

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




The Philly Political Media Watch Project

See more information about this project.