How effective have the Trump and Harris campaigns been at attracting media coverage? Not all media coverage is necessarily good for a candidate, of course. Coverage of gaffes or scandals can damage a candidate’s chances at the polls. But media visibility of at least some kind is essential.
This interactive plotly chart lets you compare the amount of cable news coverage mentioning “Donald Trump,” “Joe Biden,” and “Kamala Harris” between late April the most recent period for which data are available.
The vertical “Count” scale measures the number of 15-second airtime segments that mention the terms queried. The content represented includes content from CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and other cable news outlets.
The chart is interactive. You can:
Turn on “compare mode” to view weekly data simultaneously.
Remove data for one or more of the candidates.
Zoom in on a particular time frame.
The above figure covers all cable news outlets monitored by GDELT. What happens when you look at MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News, the three most popular U.S. cable news networks, separately?
The data in the chart come from GDELT, the Global Database of Events, Language and Tone. GDELT captures online and broadcast news content from outlets around the world and makes that content searchable via keywords.
The easiest way to access GDELT data is through its GDELT Summary web interface. But the interface has limitations. Accessing GDELT data through GDELT’s APIs gives you more flexibility. This chart draws data from GDELT’s 2.0 Television API.
The code is complex (see below), but some key things to know:
You can adjust the startdate and
enddate values to search a different range of
dates.
With a little more involved fiddling, you can change the terms
the code searches for. For example, changing
query <- "Kamala%20Harris" to query <-
(Harris%20OR%20Walz) would find not only coverage of Harris but also
coverage of Tim Walz, her running mate.
if (!require("tidyverse"))
install.packages("tidyverse")
if (!require("plotly"))
install.packages("plotly")
library(tidyverse)
library(plotly)
# Defining date range
startdate <- "20240429"
enddate <- "20241112"
### Trump
# Defining query
# Note:
# In queries, use %20 to indicate a space
# Example: "Donald%20Trump" is "Donald Trump"
# Use parentheses and %20OR%20 for "either/or" queries
# Example: "(Harris%20OR%20Walz)" is "(Harris OR Walz)"
query <- "Donald%20Trump"
# Building the volume dataframe
vp1 <- "https://api.gdeltproject.org/api/v2/tv/tv?query="
vp2 <- "%20market:%22National%22&mode=timelinevol&format=csv&datanorm=raw&startdatetime="
vp3 <- "000000&enddatetime="
vp4 <- "000000"
text_v_url <- paste0(vp1, query, vp2, startdate, vp3, enddate, vp4)
v_url <- URLencode(text_v_url)
v_url
Trump <- read_csv(v_url)
Trump <- Trump %>%
rename(Date = 1, Trump = 3)
### Biden
# Defining query
query <- "Joe%20Biden"
# Building the volume dataframe
vp1 <- "https://api.gdeltproject.org/api/v2/tv/tv?query="
vp2 <- "%20market:%22National%22&mode=timelinevol&format=csv&datanorm=raw&startdatetime="
vp3 <- "000000&enddatetime="
vp4 <- "000000"
text_v_url <- paste0(vp1, query, vp2, startdate, vp3, enddate, vp4)
v_url <- URLencode(text_v_url)
v_url
Biden <- read_csv(v_url)
Biden <- Biden %>%
rename(Date = 1, Biden = 3)
AllData <- left_join(Trump, Biden)
### Harris
# Defining query
query <- "Kamala%20Harris"
# Building the volume dataframe
vp1 <- "https://api.gdeltproject.org/api/v2/tv/tv?query="
vp2 <- "%20market:%22National%22&mode=timelinevol&format=csv&datanorm=raw&startdatetime="
vp3 <- "000000&enddatetime="
vp4 <- "000000"
text_v_url <- paste0(vp1, query, vp2, startdate, vp3, enddate, vp4)
v_url <- URLencode(text_v_url)
v_url
Harris <- read_csv(v_url)
Harris <- Harris %>%
rename(Date = 1, Harris = 3)
AllData <- left_join(AllData, Harris)
### Graphic
AllData <- AllData %>%
arrange(Date)
# Add "WeekOf" variable to the data frame
if (!require("lubridate"))
install.packages("lubridate")
library(lubridate)
AllData$WeekOf <- round_date(AllData$Date,
unit = "week",
week_start = getOption("lubridate.week.start", 1))
CombinedCoverage <- AllData %>%
group_by(WeekOf) %>%
summarize(
Trump = sum(Trump, na.rm = TRUE),
Biden = sum(Biden, na.rm = TRUE),
Harris = sum(Harris, na.rm = TRUE)
)
fig <- plot_ly(
CombinedCoverage,
x = ~ WeekOf,
y = ~ Trump,
name = 'Trump',
type = 'scatter',
mode = 'none',
stackgroup = 'one',
fillcolor = '#B8001F')
fig <- fig %>% add_trace(y = ~ Biden,
name = 'Biden',
fillcolor = '#507687')
fig <- fig %>% add_trace(y = ~ Harris,
name = 'Harris',
fillcolor = '#384B70')
fig <- fig %>% layout(
title = 'Segment counts, by topic and week',
xaxis = list(title = "Week of", showgrid = FALSE),
yaxis = list(title = "Count", showgrid = TRUE)
)
fig
### Results for MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News, separately
# MSNBC
MSNBC <- AllData %>%
filter(Series == "MSNBC")
figMSNBC <- plot_ly(
MSNBC,
x = ~ WeekOf,
y = ~ Trump,
name = 'Trump',
type = 'scatter',
mode = 'none',
stackgroup = 'one',
fillcolor = '#B8001F')
figMSNBC <- figMSNBC %>% add_trace(y = ~ Biden,
name = 'Biden',
fillcolor = '#507687')
figMSNBC <- figMSNBC %>% add_trace(y = ~ Harris,
name = 'Harris',
fillcolor = '#384B70')
figMSNBC <- figMSNBC %>% layout(
title = 'Segment counts, MSNBC, by topic and week',
xaxis = list(title = "Week of", showgrid = FALSE),
yaxis = list(title = "Count", showgrid = TRUE)
)
figMSNBC
# CNN
CNN <- AllData %>%
filter(Series == "CNN")
figCNN <- plot_ly(
CNN,
x = ~ WeekOf,
y = ~ Trump,
name = 'Trump',
type = 'scatter',
mode = 'none',
stackgroup = 'one',
fillcolor = '#B8001F')
figCNN <- figCNN %>% add_trace(y = ~ Biden,
name = 'Biden',
fillcolor = '#507687')
figCNN <- figCNN %>% add_trace(y = ~ Harris,
name = 'Harris',
fillcolor = '#384B70')
figCNN <- figCNN %>% layout(
title = 'Segment counts, CNN, by topic and week',
xaxis = list(title = "Week of", showgrid = FALSE),
yaxis = list(title = "Count", showgrid = TRUE)
)
figCNN
#Fox News
FoxNews <- AllData %>%
filter(Series == "FOXNEWS")
figFox <- plot_ly(
FoxNews,
x = ~ WeekOf,
y = ~ Trump,
name = 'Trump',
type = 'scatter',
mode = 'none',
stackgroup = 'one',
fillcolor = '#B8001F')
figFox <- figFox %>% add_trace(y = ~ Biden,
name = 'Biden',
fillcolor = '#507687')
figFox <- figFox %>% add_trace(y = ~ Harris,
name = 'Harris',
fillcolor = '#384B70')
figFox <- figFox %>% layout(
title = 'Segment counts, Fox News, by topic and week',
xaxis = list(title = "Week of", showgrid = FALSE),
yaxis = list(title = "Count", showgrid = TRUE)
)
figFox