Once again, Doris Graber brings readers the most thought-provoking and recent scholarship about the actual power of the media in the real world of politics. With approximately 35 essays, half of them new to this edition, the selections reflect the latest changes in American politics, in American media platforms, and in the interactions between political actors and journalists.

Examining these changes and assessing their political significance, this new sixth edition includes coverage of:

• the influence of non-professional citizen journalists;

• a look ahead at media development in the next decade;

• the public's growing disdain for the media and its effect on the media's influence;

• old and new media's impact on political participation;

• media and the 2008 presidential election;

• interest groups' power to control news selection;

• media happenings at the state and local levels;

• lobbyists' efforts to derail updates to media laws and regulations.