Keeping up with American presidential elections can be tough.

With so many news sources and constant updates, it's easy to feel overwhelmed.

To address this issue, we utilized Artificial Intelligence to summarize the media coverage of candidates and present it in a more digestible format.

For the best experience, we suggest enabling the volume on your device.

Race for the White House

The White House: a symbol of power, shaped by the voice of the people.

Media narratives weave the fabric of our political landscape.

Each word, each story, is a stroke painting our nation's future.

Behold the canvas of democracy, where media and minds converge to elect a leader.

The White House

The White House serves as the official home of the President of the United States. As every aspiring candidate strives to secure this prestigious residence, they inevitably attract significant media scrutiny. Hover over the above voronoi stippling image to uncover additional details! Each dot on the screen corresponds to one of the 50,000+ candidate mentions in our dataset.

2024 Presidential Election

As we approach 2024, the United States gears up for another crucial Presidential Election. At this point, the focus lies on the candidates from the Republican and Democratic parties, who are competing to secure their party's nomination.

The electoral process involves a series of primaries and caucuses across each state and territory, starting with the Iowa Caucus on January 15th, where voters will express their preferences for the presidential nominees within their respective parties.

This initial contest marks the beginning of a rigorous campaign season where candidates will vie for support and delegates to ultimately claim their spot on the ballot for the presidency on November 5th.

Politics and Media

The Problem

In the age of information, the volume of news available can be overwhelming, making it challenging for citizens to stay informed without feeling inundated. TV news in particular often focuses on sensationalism and driving viewership over nuanced coverage. The true substance of candidates can become obscured, leaving potential voters grappling with biased narratives and a lack of depth in coverage.

The Solution

Leveraging the vast dataset of nearly 3 million hours of U.S. local and national TV news from The Internet Archive, our website summarizes key events and narratives from the previous week using machine learning models for the purposes of comparing sentiment across news networks and sources.

Learn More

If you're interested in learning more about how we collect our data, watch the informational video linked below! It walks through our data collection process from start to finish, and is explained by some voices that you may find familiar!

The Candidates

In the upcoming 2024 presidential election, numerous candidates have become the center of media interest, piquing the curiosity of the american public. As the nation eagerly anticipates its future leader, these candidates have taken center stage on the national platform, aiming to win over the hearts and minds of voters. With the media's attention firmly fixed upon them, let's formally introduce the prominent contenders who have risen to prominence in this crucial election.

2024 Candidates

Click on a Candidate to Learn More

Candidate Coverage Volume

Candidate Coverage Sentiment

All Candidates

Poll Leaders

Changing Winds

The Media

In the 2024 presidential election, the media is the nation's political compass. It informs, shapes narratives, and holds the key to an informed electorate, playing an indispensable role in our democracy's journey.

Sentiment by Network^*

What percentage of reports are positive?

Candidate Coverage by Network

Uncover the Impact: Your Interactive Analysis

Delve into the dynamics of political influence with our interactive visualization. As you've journeyed through the ebb and flow of the election campaign, you might have pondered the 'whys' behind the sudden rises and falls of candidates. Here, we empower you to uncover these mysteries.

Select from key political events, choose the candidates of interest, and decide whether to track coverage sentiment or volume.

This tool is designed to bring your observations full circle, offering you the reins to explore the intricate web of political events and their tangible effects on public perception and media coverage. Discover how specific events have shaped the election narrative in real-time. Your insights await.

Impactful Events

Make Your Own Adjustments

How did the...

For (select candidates):

Biden

Christie

Desantis

Haley

Pence

Ramaswamy

Scott

Trump

What Did We Learn?

Many of our beliefs regarding the shortcomings of television media were confirmed:

Candidates with lower name recognition were not only less likely to be covered, but in some cases received 10 to 100 times less coverage
More traditionally partisan networks such as Fox News, CNN, and MSBNC tended to focus on negative coverage of adversarial candidates
There is a clear incumbency advantage in the media. The coverage of both President Biden and former President Trump dwarf that of the candidates.

So, what can we do to avoid falling victim to the media frenzy?

Conduct independent research on the candidates: visit their campaign sites, read policy proposals, and watch or listen to interviews and debates
Seek out alternative, less sensational sources of information, to include print media and long-form content such as podcasts
If you find a candidate you are passionate about, spread the word! Talk to friends and family, donate time or money to their campaign, and of course, VOTE come Election Day!

Team Members

Acknowledgments

We do not own the rights to any of the video, audio, or images used in this project. This project is for educational use only and may not be used for commercial purposes.

Thank you to the Internet Archive and its supporters for creating and continuously updating its television news archive. We encourage everyone to check out the archive and play around with different search terms and date ranges.

Finally, we'd like to thank our professors, Hanspeter Pfister and Johanna Beyer, our teaching fellow Johannes Knittel, and the rest of the teaching staff for equiping with the tools to create this project.