Page 2 - An Introduction to Political Communication Fifth Edition

Intro to Politics Communication (5th edn)-p.qxp 9/2/11 10:55 Page i

AN INTRODUCTION TO
POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

Fifth edition

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 first two years of Barack
Obama’s term
• the MPs’ expenses scandal in Britain, and the 2010 UK election
campaign
• the growing role of bloggers and online pundits such as Guido Fawkes
in the political agenda-setting process
• the emergence of social media platforms such as Twitter, YouTube and
Facebook, and their destabilising impact on the management of political
crises all over the world, including the Iranian pro-reform protests of
July 2009 and the Israeli attack on the anti-blockade flotilla of May
2010
• the growing power of Wikileaks and other online information sources
to challenge state control of classified information

Brian McNair is Professor of Journalism, Media and Communication at
Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. He has authored
many books and articles on political media, including News and Journalism
in the UK (fifth edition, 2009), Mediated Access (2003), Journalism and
Democracy (2000) and The Sociology of Journalism (1998).