We Keep America on Top of the World is a lucid exploration of contemporary American journalism, with particular emphasis on its influential and controversial conponent - television news. Daniel Hallin's discussion encompasses the central and most controversial issues in the study of journalism: the wars in Vietnam and Central America; US-Soviet summits; the origin of the ten-second soundbite; the differences between print and television journalism; and the tension between professionalism and populism. We Keep America on Top of the World offers a distinctive approach to understanding an institution torn between the imperatives of the market, political ideology and popular fashion, and journalistic professionalism. It will be essential reading for students of media, communication and journalism.

Twenty-four articles on the broadcast and print news media and their role in the dissemination of news, types of articles being presented to the public, and what the future holds.

Provides in-depth interpretive essays, commissioned from foreign policy experts, explaining the concepts and historical trends that have guided and influenced American foreign policy throughout U.S. history.

The US experience - Andrew E. Rice

Today, political participation takes place in schools, at home, at work, and in the courts. We have made "informed citizenship" an overwhelming task. Schudson argues that it is time for a new model, in which we stop expecting everyone to do everything. The new citizenship must rest on citizens who are monitors of political danger rather than walking encyclopedias of governmental news. This tour of the past makes it possible to imagine a very different - and much more satisfying - future.