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Abortion Mentions Climb After SCOTUS Draft Opinion 2022 ElectionsReleases

Abortion Mentions Climb After SCOTUS Draft Opinion

25 Percent of Pro-Republican House Ads in Past Week Mention Abortion (MIDDLETOWN, CT) May 12, 2022 – Mentions of abortion in televised political advertising have risen in the wake of the leaked draft of the Supreme Court opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade, according to a new analysis by the Wesleyan Media Project.  The increase was especially pronounced in races for the U.S. House, where prior to May 3, 6.2 percent of pro-Democratic ads and 13.5 percent of pro-Republican ads mentioned the issue (Table 1).  Since that day, 22 percent of pro-Democratic ads and 24.5 percent of pro-Republican ads…
Wesleyan Media Project
May 12, 2022
Biden Harris signs by Gage Skidmore
Political Ads in 2020: Fast and Furious 2020 ElectionsReleasesYear-End Summaries

Political Ads in 2020: Fast and Furious

Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr WMP Publishes End-of-Cycle Report   (MIDDLETOWN, CT) March 23, 2021 – New research published by the Wesleyan Media Project co-directors in The Forum: A Journal of Applied Research in Contemporary Politics (gated) provides a post-mortem on the fast and furious political advertising in the 2020 cycle.  Our analysis of the volume and spending on political advertising—both on television and online—suggests a few initial conclusions.  First, ad volumes in 2020 were off the charts.  Second, Democrats’ dominance of advertising on television was clear, with pro-Biden ads outnumbering pro-Trump ads two to one or even three to one in most media markets…
Wesleyan Media Project
March 23, 2021
Donald Trump speaking at rally
Presidential General Election Ad Spending Tops $1.5 Billion 2020 ElectionsReleases

Presidential General Election Ad Spending Tops $1.5 Billion

Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr Pro-Dem Ad Advantages Up and Down the Ballot;Republican Airings More Negative   Report Highlights President Biden and Trump spending by medium (Table 1) Top TV spenders in the presidential race (Table 2) Digital spending by Trump and Biden (Table 3) TV Spending by media market (Table 4, Figure 1, and compared to 2016 in Figure 2) Facebook spending by geography (Figure 4) U.S. Senate Top TV spenders in U.S. Senate races (Table 6) Digital and TV spending in U.S. Senate races (Table 7) Tone of U.S. Senate races (Table 8, Figure 8, and Figure 9) Top issues…
Wesleyan Media Project
October 29, 2020
Record Shattering 2020 Ad Volumes 2020 ElectionsReleases

Record Shattering 2020 Ad Volumes

Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr Phoenix Top Media Market Cycle-to-Date   (MIDDLETOWN, CT) October 21, 2020 – A new brief report from the Wesleyan Media Project finds record levels of television advertising in the 2020 campaigns. Over 4.9 million ads have aired in federal races (House, Senate and president) on broadcast and national cable television since January of 2019 (Figure 1). That volume is more than twice the volume of ad airings in the 2012 and 2016 presidential election cycles—and well above the previously record-setting mid-term election ad volumes in 2018.   Figure 1: Volume of Federal Advertising by Cycle (2012-2020) Numbers…
Wesleyan Media Project
October 21, 2020