Good morning,
In the run-up to the Dutch elections – where the far-right Freedom Party (PVV) led by peroxide-blonde Geert Wilders is leading the polls again – the independent weekly De Groene Amsterdammer has launched an incredibly interesting initiative.
It’s called (in what to non-Dutch speakers might sound like a cat coughing up a hairball) 'De Politieke Schermtijdteller' — literally, the 'political screen-time counter.' The project uses AI to track how often and how long Dutch politicians and parties appear on television, pulling data from transcripts and using facial recognition.
The idea is simple but powerful: to expose which parties and politicians dominate airtime and how that might shape public perception ahead of the vote. Or as they write on the website, "a politician who gets a lot of screen time, gets the opportunity to rise in the polls. And the other way around; whoever polls well, gets a better shot at joining talkshows."
De Groene built the tool with a university research group specialising in AI and society. Together, they hope to bring some transparency to a media landscape often accused of giving disproportionate attention to the loudest or most provocative voices.
The data already shows some striking results. Wilders tops the chart of most mentioned political leaders, yet dangles at the bottom on actual time on screen. Everybody talks about him, but no one speaks with him – a winning tactic apparently, and one he has mastered completely.
For example, just yesterday, after 250,000 people protested peacefully in Amsterdam against the government's inaction on Israel, he tweeted what has to be a deliberate mistake about the 7 October anniversary – that gets him mentioned everywhere, without having to get his face powdered in a studio green room.
The project is a fantastic example of how AI can assist public interest journalism; a small newsroom can suddenly monitor and tally every television programme, all day, every day. And uncover and show the dynamic that exists between 'traditional' media – don't be mistaken, people in the Netherlands and across Europe still watch over two daily hours of television per day – and political campaigning.
– Alejandro Tauber, publisher
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