Mediated Politics explores the changing media environments in contemporary democracy: the internet, the decline of network news and the daily newspaper; the growing tendency to treat election campaigns as competing product advertisements; the blurring lines between news, ads, and entertainment. By combining new developments in political communication with core questions about politics and policy, a distinguished roster of international scholars offers new perspectives and directions for further study. Several broad questions emerge from the book: with ever-increasing media outlets creating more specialized segments, what happens to broader issues? Are there implications for a sense of community? Should media give people only what they want, or also what they need to be good citizens? These and other tensions created by the changing nature of political communication are covered in sections on the changing public sphere; shifts in the nature of political communication; the new shape of public opinion; transformations of political campaigns; and alterations in citizens' needs and involvement.
1. Mediated politics: an introduction W. Lance Bennett and Robert M. Entman; Part I. Democracy and the Public Sphere: 2. The public sphere and the net: structure, space, and communication Peter Dahlgren; 3. Promoting political engagement William A. Gamson; 4. The internet and the global public sphere Colin Sparks; Part II. Citizens, Consumers, and Media in Transition: 5. Reporting and the push for market-oriented journalism: media organizations as businesses Doug Underwood; 6. Political discourse and the politics of need: discourses on the good life in cyberspace Don Slater; 7. Dividing practices: segmentation and targeting in the emerging public sphere Oscar Gandy; 8. Let us infotain you: politics in the new media environment Michael X. Delli Carpini and Bruce A. Williams; 9. The future of the institutional media Timothy E. Cook; Part III. Mediated Political Information and Public Opinion: 10. Reframing public opinion as we have known it Robert M. Entman and Susan Herbst; 11. Political waves and democratic discourse: terrorism waves during the Oslo peace process Gadi Wolfsfeld; 12. Monica Lewinsky and the mainsprings of American politics John Zaller; 13. The big spin: strategic communication and the transformation of pluralist democracy W. Lance Bennett and Jarol B. Manheim; 14. The impact of the new media W. Russell Neuman; Part IV. Mediated Campaigns: 15. Issue advocacy in a changing discourse environment Kathleen Hall Jamieson; 16. Implications of rival visions of electoral campaigns C. Edwin Baker; 17. Mediated electoral democracy: campaigns, incentives, and reform Bruce Buchanan; 18. 'Americanization' reconsidered: UK-US campaign communication comparisons across time Jay G. Blumler and Michael Gurevitch; Part V. Citizens: Present and Future: 19. Citizen discourse and political participation: a survey Roderick P. Hart; 20. Adapting political news to twenty-first century Americans Doris A. Graber; 21. National identities and the future of democracy Wendy M. Rahn and Thomas J. Rudolph; 22. Communication in the future of democracy: a conclusion.
