An introduction to political communication

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Table of Contents -- List of illustrations -- Preface and acknowledgements -- Preface to sixth edition -- Part I Politics in the age of mediation -- 1 Politics in the age of mediation -- 2 Politics, democracy and the media -- 3 The effects of political communication -- 4 The political media -- 5 The media as political actors -- Part II Communicating politics -- 6 Party political communication I: Advertising -- 7 Party political communication II: Political public relations -- 8 Pressure-group politics and the oxygen of publicity -- 9 Political communication in a globalised world -- 10 Conclusion: mediated politics and the democratic process -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

An Introduction to Political Communication introduces students to the complex relationship between politics, the media and democracy in the United Kingdom, United States and other contemporary societies. Brian McNair examines how politicians, trade unions, pressure groups, NGOs and terrorist organisations make use of the media. Individual chapters look at political media and their effects, the work of political advertising, marketing and public relations, and the communicative practices of organizations at all levels, from grass-root campaigning through to governments and international bodies. This fifth edition has been revised and updated to include: the 2008 US presidential election, and the early years of Barack Obama's termthe MPs' expenses scandal in Britain, and the 2010 UK election campaignthe growing role of bloggers and online pundits such as Guido Fawkes in the political agenda setting processthe emergence of social media platforms such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, and their destabiising impact on the management of political crises all over the world, including the Iranian pro-reform protests of July 2009 and the Israeli atack on the anti-blockade flotilla of May 2010the growing power of Wikileaks and other online information sources to challenge state control of classified information.