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WMP/CRP Special Report
Outside Group Activity, 2000-2016 2016 ElectionsBlogReleases

WMP/CRP Special Report
Outside Group Activity, 2000-2016

Image: OpenSecrets Super PACs dominate 2016; “Dark Money” a consistent but growing presence since 2000; Outside Groups at all-time high in share of ads aired; most groups active in only one election cycle August 24, 2016 (MIDDLETOWN, CT) August 24, 2016 – A new historical analysis of political advertising data by the Wesleyan Media Project, in partnership with the Center for Responsive Politics, reveals several important findings about the involvement of outside groups in elections over the past decade and a half.  In particular, the report provides an in-depth assessment of outside group advertising (2.4 million airings) over time, examining trends…
Wesleyan Media Project
August 24, 2016
Voice and Inequality in Political Campaigns Blog

Voice and Inequality in Political Campaigns

This summary, by Kathleen Searles, is based on new research just published in the journal Political Communication   Is Don Draper Making Political Ads? -- AMC’s popular period drama, “Mad Men,” is set in a fictional 1960s advertising agency where ad executives attempt to sell happiness to America’s beleaguered housewives. While a lot has changed since Don Draper’s days on Madison Avenue, one aspect hasn’t: men’s voices are still the overwhelming choice when it comes to voiceover narration in political advertising. Male voice-overs outnumbered female voice-overs two to one in the 2010 and 2012 congressional campaigns. Sixty three percent of…
Wesleyan Media Project
April 28, 2015
Reducing the effectiveness of group-sponsored advertising through disclosure Blog

Reducing the effectiveness of group-sponsored advertising through disclosure

This post from Travis N. Ridout was first published at The Blue Review, a journal of popular scholarship in the public interest at Boise State University. Click here for the original post.   It used to be that candidates paid for most of the political ads that aired on their behalf. If they were involved in a highly competitive race, their political party might have jumped into the “air war” to pay for some ads backing the candidate. Occasionally, an interest group even waded into the political ads game. But in the past decade, that traditional balance of advertising sponsorship…
Wesleyan Media Project
March 18, 2015