This unusual volume seeks to accomplish three related goals: * to assess the extent and limits of media power in election campaigns * to extend the concept of media agenda-setting to include the contributions of powerful news sources in the process of election agenda formation * to evaluate the impact of national system variables (differences in political and media systems) on the balance of party and media forces in the formation of campaign agendas In the process, it searches for ways of measuring the discretionary power of the media in electoral politics, testing this in terms of the relative ability of journalists and politicians to shape election campaign agendas.

This book discusses two related themes concerning the role and processes of mass communication in society. The first deals with questions regarding the power of the media: how should it be defined? how is it wielded and by whom? are previous approaches and answers to such questions adequate? The second theme revolves around the divisions between the liberal pluralist and Marxist approaches to the analysis of the nature of the media. These divisions have, in recent years, been fundamental to the debate concerning the understanding of the role of mass communication, and the examination of them in this book will challenge the reader to look more closely at a number of assumptions that have long been taken for granted.

This unusual volume seeks to accomplish three related goals: * to assess the extent and limits of media power in election campaigns * to extend the concept of media agenda-setting to include the contributions of powerful news sources in the process of election agenda formation * to evaluate the impact of national system variables (differences in political and media systems) on the balance of party and media forces in the formation of campaign agendas In the process, it searches for ways of measuring the discretionary power of the media in electoral politics, testing this in terms of the relative ability of journalists and politicians to shape election campaign agendas.

eBook available with sample pages: HB:0415108519

Since the 1970s the role of the mass media in the world of politics has become increasingly influential, controversial and disturbing. In an analysis of systems of political communication, the authors trace the origins and development of this "crisis of communication for citizenship". They provide detailed critiques of the relationship between British and American broadcasters and politicians, and of political communication in election campaigns since the late 1960s. They trace the roots of the problem to the contemporary social and political environment, characterized by an increasingly disaffected public whose ability to make sense of civic problems is increasingly confounded and frustrated. Looking to the future, they consider how political communication might be improved within the context of a restructured public sphere.

Examines the power of the media and the divisions between the liberal pluralist and the Marxist approaches to the analysis of the nature of the media.