What is the Wesleyan Media Project and what does it have to do with the 2010 election? At TransparencyCamp 2011, Erika Franklin Fowler -- a professor at Wesleyan University and the Wesleyan Media Project's lead -- gave a lightning talk that answered both these questions and shone a little sunlight on 2010 campaign spending by special interest groups. (Slides posted with permission of creator, Erika Franklin Fowler.)

1. Erika Franklin Fowler, Ph.D. Department of Government http://election-ad.research.wesleyan.edu

5. Kantar/CMAG Frequency Data

6. Ad Storyboards…& Video Source: Kantar Media/CMAG

7. Online Coding Tool 5,000+ ads (nearly 3M airings) coded…and counting!

9. 2.6M ads, $956M spent (Fed + Gov)September 1 – Election Day Interest Groups=$110M in federal and $70M in gov races

13. Interest Group Activity in Perspective Source: Wesleyan Media Project & Wisconsin Advertising Project

14. Tone of 2010 Campaign Source: New York Times using Wesleyan Media Project & Wisconsin Advertising Project

15. Parties, Groups More Negative

16. And More...

17. Policy, Advocacy & Transparency

19. 2012 and beyond…? 2012 and beyond…?

20. Erika Franklin Fowler, Ph.D. Department of Government http://election-ad.research.wesleyan.edu