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 "Aimee Belgard" shown to the left of the center line and results for "Aimee Belgard for Congress & The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee" 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 "Aimee Belgard"

Times Aired: 500
Times Aired: 412
Times Aired: 412
Times Aired: 354
Times Aired: 294

Advertisements Featuring "Aimee Belgard for Congress & The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee"

Times Aired: 77



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 "Aimee Belgard"

RankShowAiringsPreview
1Eyewitness News at 6111View
2Action News103View
3Good Day Philadelphia82View
4Today79View
5NBC 10 News at 5pm72View
6Eyewitness News at 569View
7Good Morning America61View
8Action News at Ten on PHL1761View
9CBS This Morning61View
10FOX 29 News at Five59View
11Dr. Phil56
12NBC 10 News Today at 600a54View
13Fox 29 News at 6PM53View
14Live With Kelly and Michael52
15The Dr. Oz Show50
16The Ellen DeGeneres Show48
17Fox 29 Morning News at 6a45View
18Judge Judy39
19Jeopardy39
20NBC 10 News at 6pm39View
21Action News 600 PM34View
22Rachael Ray30
23Action News 530 PM28View
24NBC 10 News at 11p28View
25NBC 10 News at 4pm27View
26The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon24
27NBC 10 News Today at 11a23View
28Eyewitness News at 1122View
29Wheel of Fortune21
30Late Show With David Letterman20
31The View20
32The Talk19
33The Meredith Vieira Show18
34Eyewitness News on the CW Philly18View
35Action News at 4pm16View
36Fox 29 News at 1015View
37Good Day Philadelphia at 915View
38NBC Nightly News14View
39Chasing14
40TMZ Live13
41Access Hollywood12
42Eyewitness News at 53012View
43ABC World News Tonight With David Muir12View
44Two and a Half Men11
45Late Night With Seth Meyers10
46CBS Evening News With Scott Pelley10View
47Extra10
48Entertainment Tonight10
49Family Feud9
50Inside Edition9
51The Doctors8
52Dish Nation8
53NBC 10 News Today at 500a7View
54The Insider7
55Action News 500 PM7View
56The Big Bang Theory7
57Steve Harvey7
58NBC 10 News Today at 530a6View
59The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson6
60Judge Mathis6
61Modern Family6
62The Steve Wilkos Show5
63Days of our Lives5
64Eyewitness News at 7am5View
65The Chew5
66Hot Bench5
67Who Wants to Be a Millionaire5
68The Queen Latifah Show4
69Nightline4View
70Eye Opener4
71Lets Make a Deal4
72Law Order Special Victims Unit3
73Eyewitness News at 6am3View
74NFL Football3
75Talk Philly3
76Saturday Night Live3
77CBS News Sunday Morning3View
78NBC 10 News at 6am3View
79NBC 10 News at 7am3View
80Action News Weekend2View
81World Series Pregame2
82Madam Secretary2
83Once Upon a Time2
84Castle2
85Blue Bloods2
86The Price Is Right2
87Chicago Fire2
88Meet the Press2View
89Daytime Jeopardy2
90NBC 10 News at 10am2View
9160 Minutes2View
92The Young and the Restless2
93The Simpsons2
94Face the Nation2View
95NBC 10 News at 9am2View
96FOX 29 News Special2View
97Dateline NBC2View
98The Mysteries of Laura2
99In Depth With Graham Bensinger1
100Americas Funniest Home Videos1
101NFL Thursday Night Kickoff1
102Person of Interest1
103A to Z1
104The Walking Dead1
105Inside Story1View
106Eagles Game Plan1
107College Football1
108Action News Weekend 7AM1View
109Inside Edition Weekend1
110Hawaii Five-01
111Eagles Game Day Kickoff1
112The Amazing Race1
113Fox 29 Morning News at 5a1View
114The OT1
115Action News Weekend 6AM1View
116Parenthood1
117Early Today1View
118CSI Crime Scene Investigation1
119Fox Sports Sunday1
120TMZ1
121Utopia1
122Grimm1
123NBC 10 News at 530a1View
124This Week With George Stephanopoulos1View
1252014 TCS New York City Marathon1
126The Voice1
1272014 Breeders Cup1
128NCIS1
129Motorcycle Racing1
130FOX News Sunday With Chris Wallace1View

All Shows Featuring "Aimee Belgard for Congress & The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee"

RankShowAiringsPreview
1Action News9View
2Eyewitness News at 66View
3Eyewitness News at 430am6View
4Action News at Ten on PHL175View
5Today4View
6NBC 10 News Today at 11a4View
7CBS This Morning3View
8NBC 10 News at 5pm3View
9FOX 29 News at Five3View
10Fox 29 Morning News at 5a3View
11Good Morning America3View
12Eyewitness News at 53View
13NBC 10 News at 6pm2View
14Action News 500 PM2View
15Fox 29 News at 102View
16Action News 530 PM2View
17Eyewitness News at 112View
18NBC 10 News at 4pm2View
19Action News at 4pm2View
20NBC 10 News at 11p1View
21Action News Weekend1View
22Fox 29 Morning News at 4a1View
23NBC 10 News Today at 530a1View
24CBS Evening News With Scott Pelley1View
25NBC 10 News at 9am1View
26Fox 29 News at 6PM1View
27Fox 29 Morning News at 6a1View
28CBS News Sunday Morning1View
29NBC 10 News Today at 600a1View
30NBC 10 News at 7am1View




The Philly Political Media Watch Project

See more information about this project.