Wesleyan Media Project

Trump Bets on Online Spending;Warren, Biden, Harris Top Democratic Spenders; Men Seeing More Online Presidential Ads   (MIDDLETOWN, CT) June 6, 2019 - In this early part of the 2020 election season, Donald Trump has spent vastly more on digital ads than his Democratic rivals, according to an analysis by the Wesleyan Media Project. Since May of 2018, Trump’s campaign committee and his joint fundraising committee with the Republican National Committee have spent over $18 million on digital advertising on two of the largest digital platforms, Facebook and Google—almost ten times as much as his nearest Democratic competitor, Elizabeth Warren…

(MIDDLETOWN, CT) November 5, 2018 - The Wesleyan Media Project is releasing its fourth post in a series of regularly updated overviews of issue mentions in federal races by state and an interactive visual display of issue discussion from the four main issues featured in our issue spotlights. In both the figure and the table, we show the number of ads that aired in House and Senate races in each state from October 1, 2018, to October 31, 2018. See the WMP Lab Reports section below Table 1 for links to four new reports created in collaboration with students in…

(MIDDLETOWN, CT) November 1, 2018 - In partnership with the Center for Responsive Politics, the Wesleyan Media Project reports that although the proportion of dark money ads airing this year is not record-breaking, the number of dark money advertisements on television is at a four cycle high. As shown in Table 1, 243,652 dark money ads have aired in federal races from January 1 of the prior year through October 25, 2018. This represents 11 percent of airings, which is up from the 7 percent in 2016, but down slightly from 2012 and 2014 proportions. Table 1: Dark Money in…