Wesleyan Media Project

By: Phuc Ngo ’27 As Election Day neared, the Wesleyan Media Project’s reports on political advertising and their expert commentary were frequently cited in national media. Erika Franklin Fowler, professor of government and co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project, spoke with CBS Morning News about the impact of television ads. “Negative ads tend to be more policy-based, more issue-focused,” said Fowler, “and those details actually are very important for citizens who don't otherwise pay a lot of attention to politics.” A Washington Post piece on the presidential race in Virginia cited Wesleyan Media Project data on the relatively low number…

Lin-Manuel Miranda ’05, actor, librettist, and creator of the 2015 musical Hamilton, appeared on comedian Mike Birbiglia’s podcast “Working it Out.” Miranda and Birbiglia discussed the release of Miranda’s new album “Warriors” and the creative process that informed it. The Washington Post mentioned the work of college students from the northeast canvassing in Pennsylvania for political campaigns. Several of the students received Political Engagement Grants from the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life. Erika Franklin Fowler, professor of government and co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project, joined ABC News’ “FiveThirtyEight Politics” podcast to break down the political ads flooding…

Senior Julia Armeli '25 is one of a dozen undergraduate students using innovative technologies to make sense of the deluge of political ads targeting citizens at Delta Lab, the computational arm of the Wesleyan Media Project (WMP). This election season, Armeli, her student colleagues at Delta Lab — and another group of students at WMP known as human coders — will continue to apply their research and analytical skills to shed light on an increasingly diverse and polarized media messaging landscape. Delta Lab is a student-centered lab that draws on the skills and passion of students to analyze political ads…

The Wall Street Journal published a piece on the pressure faced by college administrators for the upcoming academic year after widespread student protests last year. President Michael S. Roth ’78 said the situation poses an opportunity for students to be actively engaged in politics. Wesleyan offers students political engagement grants through the Jewett Center for Community Partnerships to make it easier for them to be involved in political campaigns and other civic engagement opportunities. “The real issue is, how are we going to govern ourselves in the next four years? And students can play a big role in that,” Roth…

President Michael S. Roth ’78 wrote an op-ed for Inside Higher Ed on his recent letters to state representatives calling for them to redouble their efforts to bring peace in the Middle East and to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. “Silence at a time of humanitarian catastrophe isn’t neutrality; it’s either cowardice or collaboration. We don’t need institution-speak, but we do need leaders of academic and cultural institutions to call on our government and our fellow citizens to address this crisis.” Roth joined the Yale University Press Podcast to talk about his book the history of the student, current crises…

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) recently reported a steep rise in beneficiary complaints regarding the way Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D programs were being advertised. Many of the complaints suggested that some advertisements for these programs were misleading consumers or using aggressive sales tactics to boost enrollment. To better understand this problem, the Wesleyan Media Project (WMP) collaborated with KFF to study how health insurers and brokers are marketing Medicare programs to the American public during the open enrollment period in 2022. “We have worked informally with KFF in the past since our core set of expertise…

A team of Wesleyan researchers recently released the results of its first public poll, which focuses on Connecticut political and social issues. The team was comprised of Logan Dancey, Associate Professor of Government; Erika Franklin Fowler, Professor of Government; Alisha Butler, Provost’s Equity Fellow in the College of Education Studies; and Natália de Paula Moreira, Postdoctoral Fellow with the Wesleyan Media Project/Quantitative Analysis Center. The poll found that a majority of registered Connecticut voters approve of the job Ned Lamont is doing as governor and support tax relief proposals being considered in the Connecticut General Assembly. Among other issues, most…

The 2022 midterm elections featured a record volume of television advertising, while, in addition, candidates in federal races spent almost $150 million on digital ads, according to a post-mortem analysis from the Wesleyan Media Project. Late February, the Wesleyan Media Project published two reports on television and digital ad spending in The Forum: A Journal of Applied Research in Contemporary Politics. “After all was said and done, and after billions of dollars were spent on political advertising in the 2022 U.S. midterm election campaign, American politics mostly changed on the margins,” according to the Wesleyan Media Project. According to WMP…

(Updated March 1, 2023) Philosopher Kohei Saito ’09 spoke with The Guardian on his work in Marx in the Anthropocene which builds on Karl Marx’s writings on the economic and ecological crises to propose degrowth communism as a “new way of living.” Erika Franklin Fowler, Co-Director of the Wesleyan Media Project, spoke with Campaigns and Elections on the digital advertising spending of candidates in major state and federal races. Gary Yohe, Huffington Foundation Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies, Emeritus, was quoted in a story by The Poynter Institute's PolitiFact on an advertising campaign promoting natural gas’ role in transitioning…

Updated November 28, 2022 Lin-Manuel Miranda '02 is the top Hot 100 Songwriter of 2022. Eight of the songs he wrote for the Disney film Encanto landed on the Billboard charts. Assistant Professor of the Practice in African American Studies Jesse Nasta '07 participated in a Veteran’s Day ceremony recognizing the service of Jesse Sips Caples of Middletown, an African American Revolutionary War veteran. Wesleyan University is cited by the New York Times as one of the reasons Middletown is a desirable place to live in a tight job market. Gary Yohe, the Huffington Foundation professor of Economics and Environmental…

Outside group advertising on television in federal races is breaking records, according to a new analysis released by the Wesleyan Media Project on October 20. Since the 2010 election cycle, the Wesleyan Media Project has provided real-time information on the extent of corporate and union spending in federal election campaigns across the country, who specifically is doing that spending, and which candidates are benefiting. The project releases a detailed report addressing the current political advertising landscape every two weeks during election season. In just the last two weeks alone, the Republican super PAC, Congressional Leadership Fund, has targeted ads in 42 different…

Citing the urgent need for more effective and equitable health communication, researchers at Wesleyan University are collaborating with two other universities on a unique rapid response research endeavor led by Cornell communication professor Jeff Niederdeppe and funded with a newly announced $5 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). “At this moment it is crucial to understand both the nature of and the potential of messaging around policies promoting racial and health equity,” said Steven Moore, assistant professor of government and an expert on race and politics. “I’m excited to be a part of this fantastic team of…

Wesleyan in the News: November 2024

Wesleyan in the News: October 2024

Student-Led Lab Shines Light on Political Advertising

Wesleyan in the News: August 2024

Wesleyan in the News: March 2024

Wesleyan Media Project Studies Medicare Advertisements

Researchers Release New Poll on Connecticut Politics

Wesleyan Media Project Publishes New Study on 2022 Midterm Advertising

Wesleyan in the News: February 2023

Wesleyan in the News, November 2022

Wesleyan Media Project Political Advertising Update: October 20

Rapid Response Media Messaging Research Will Promote Health and Racial Equity