It would be difficult to find a more interesting topic than the relationship between the news media and politics, especially given that Americans are now living in the "Twitter presidency" of Donald Trump. Academic research in the area of media and politics is rapidly breaking new ground to keep pace with prolific media developments and societal changes. This innovative, up-to-date text moves beyond rudimentary concepts and definitions to consider exciting research as well as practical applications that address monumental changes in media systems in the US and the world. This carefully crafted volume explores key questions posed by academics and practitioners alike, exposing students to rigorous scholarship as well as everyday challenges confronted by politicians, journalists, and media consumers. Each chapter opens with a "big question" about the impact of the news media, provides an overview of the more general topic, and then answers that question by appealing to the best, most-up-to-date research in the field. The volume as a whole is held together by an exploration of the rapidly changing media environment and the influence these changes have on individual political behavior and governments as a whole. New Directions in Media and Politics makes an ideal anchor for courses as it digs deeper into the questions that standard textbooks only hint at—and presents scholarly evidence to support the arguments made. New to the Second Edition Fully updated through the 2016 elections and the early Trump presidency with a special focus on the role of social media. Adds three new chapters: The Move to Mobile; Media and Public Policy; and Fake News. Adds Discussion Questions to the end of each chapter.

From the roles of race and gender in American politics to the 2020 elections and the global coronavirus pandemic, Politics and the Media: Intersections and New Directions examines how media and political institutions interact to shape public thinking and debates around social problems, cultural norms, and policies.

Political communication has witnessed unprecedented growth and change over the past decade. This volume explores the state of the art in political communication research and highlights some of the most promising directions for future research that are emerging in current work. New Directions in Political Communication argues that it is time for political communication research to look beyond the traditional voter persuasion paradigm that has dominated the field and reach out to other contexts and viewpoints. The volume offers analyses of the broad foundations of political communication; examples of a broadened understanding of what kinds of messages should be viewed as `political'; an institutional perspective brough

The news media have significant influence on the formation of public opinion. Called the agenda-setting role of the media, this influence occurs at three levels. Focusing public attention on a select few issues or other topics at any moment is level one. Emphasizing specific attributes of those issues or topics is level two. The Power of Information Networks: The Third Level of Agenda Setting introduces the newest perspective on this influence. While levels one and two are concerned with the salience of discrete individual elements, the third level offers a more comprehensive and nuanced perspective to explain media effects in this evolving media landscape: the ability of the news media to determine how the public associates the various elements in these media messages to create an integrated picture of public affairs. This is the first book to detail the theoretical foundations, methodological approaches, and international empirical evidence for this new perspective. Cutting-edge communication analytics such as network analysis, Big Data and data visualization techniques are used to examine these third-level effects. Diverse applications of the theory are documented in political communication, public relations, health communication, and social media research. The Power of Information Networks will interest scholars, students and practitioners concerned with the media and their social and cultural effects.

The author models the discussion of each topic in this text on the social scientific process by asking if theories exists to explain personal observations in politics and the media and if there is evidence to support the theories. End-of-chapter Active Learning exercises provide real-world examples of important concepts and ask students to collect and analyze data from various print and electronic media sources. The text includes an entire chapter on agenda setting--the media's ability to insert issues into public consciousness or increase perceived importance--which illuminates the related concepts of priming and framing.

This work examines the role and influence of the media in every sphere of American politics. Organized thematically, the book analyzes the relationship between the media and key institutions, political actors and nongovernmental entities, as well as the role of the new media, media ethics and foreign policy coverage. Written by leading scholars in the field, the chapters serve as broad overviews to the issues while discussion questions and suggestions for further reading encourage deeper inquiry. Designed to complement a wide variety of classes the book is a look at the pervasive influence of the media in American society.

The 2016 elections called into question the accuracy of public opinion polling while tapping into new streams of public opinion more widely. The third edition of this well-established text addresses these questions and adds new perspectives to its authoritative line-up. The hallmark of this book is making cutting-edge research accessible and understandable to students and general readers. Here we see a variety of disciplinary approaches to public opinion reflected including psychology, economics, sociology, and biology in addition to political science. An emphasis on race, gender, and new media puts the elections of 2016 into context and prepares students to look ahead to 2020 and beyond. New to the third edition: • Includes 2016 election results and their implications for public opinion polling going forward. • Three new chapters have been added on racializing politics, worldview politics, and the modern information environment. • New authors include Shanto Iyengar, Michael Tesler, Vladimir E. Medenica, Erin Cikanek, Danna Young, Jennifer Jerit, and Jake Haselswerdt.

The Media and the Public explores the ways a range of media, from the press to television to the Internet, have constructed and represented the public. Provides a new synthesis of recent research exploring the relationship between media and their publics Identifies ways in which different publics are subverting the gatekeeping of mainstream media in order to find a voice and communicate with others Situates contemporary media-public discourse and relationships in an historical context in order to show the origin of contemporary public/political engagement Creates a theoretical expansion on the role of the media in accessing or denying the articulation of public voices, and the ways in which publics are harnessing new media formats to produce richer and more complex forms of political engagement

This volume brings together leading scholars in the field of women and politics to provide an account of recent developments and the challenges that the future brings for women in American Politics. The book examines women's participation in the electoral arena and the emerging scholarship on the relationship between the media and women in politics, the participation of women of colour, and women's activism outside the electoral arena. This volume demonstrates both the wealth of knowledge about women and American politics by the current generation of scholars and the vast number and range of important research questions, which pose a challenge for the next generation.

News and Politics critically examines television news bulletins – still the primary source of information for most people – and asks whether the wider pace and immediacy of 24-hour news culture has influenced their format and style over time. Drawing on the concepts of mediatization and journalistic interventionism, Stephen Cushion empirically traces the shift from edited to live reporting from a cross-national perspective, focussing on the two-way convention in political coverage and the more interpretive approach to journalism it promotes. Challenging prevailing academic wisdom, Cushion argues that the mediatization of news does not necessarily reflect a commercial logic or a lowering of journalism standards. In particular, the rise of live two-ways can potentially enhance viewers’ understanding of public affairs – moving reporters beyond their visual backdrops and reliance on political soundbites – by asking journalists to scrutinize the actions of political elites, interpret competing source claims and to explain the broader context to everyday stories. Considering the future of 24-hour news, a final discussion asks whether new content and social media platforms – including Twitter and Buzzfeed – enhance or weaken democratic culture. This timely analysis of News and Politics is ideal for students of political communication and journalism studies, as well as communication studies, media studies, and political science.