For Immediate Release
August 13, 2000
Contact Information:
Amanda Cooper, 212 998–6736 or 917 439–8397
Brennan Center to PReview Online Database on Political Advertising
LOS ANGELES, August 14, 2000 – During the Democratic National Convention, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law is previewing www.buyingtime.org, an online, interactive database, making available the most comprehensive and detailed empirical information ever assembled on political TV advertising.
The Brennan Center’s interactive web site is being presented at “Democracy Row,” a forum sponsored by the USC Annenberg School of Communications, which celebrates democracy and highlights the importance of voter information. Democracy Row runs from Aug. 14–17 (Mon.-Wed., 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and Thurs., 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.) and is located in the West Hall of the Los Angeles Convention Center.
The web site, www.buyingtime.org, makes available online a wealth of information from Buying Time: Television Advertising in the 1998 Congressional Elections, a Brennan Center study which analyzed political TV ads in the top 75 media markets reaching 80 percent of the nation’s population. The Washington Post’s David Broder wrote that Buying Time was, “an eye-opener even for those of us who thought we had become completely jaded with the repetitive debate on this issue.”
By visiting the Brennan Center’s display in booth #37 of Democracy Row, delegates, members of the press, and politically active citizens will have an opportunity to log-on to www.buyingtime.org and to examine in detail what candidates, parties and interest groups said in the 1998 congressional elections, and how much they spent to say it. Users can access the information through three different search tools. Two offer quick, one-click access to key findings of the study or profiles of races or groups. A third, advanced search tool offers users interested in more specific information the opportunity to design their own query of the data.
The general public will be able to access www.buyingtime.org on August 22, 2000. Buying Time and http://www.buyingtime.org are made possible because of the support of the Pew Charitable Trusts.