Page 2 - An Introduction to Political Communication Third Edition

AN INTRODUCTION TO

POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

Third edition

An Introduction to Political Communication explores the relation-
ship between politics, the media and democracy in the United
Kingdom, the United States and other contemporary societies. In
this textbook, Brian McNair examines how politicians, trade
unions, pressure groups, non-governmental organisations and
terrorist organisations make use of the media.
Separate chapters look at political media and their effects; the
work of political advertising, marketing and public relations; and
the communication practices of organisations at all levels, from
grass-roots campaigning through to governments and international
bodies. This third edition is revised and updated to include:

• the re-election of New Labour in 2001
• the changes in government information and communication
policy introduced by the Blair administration since 1997
• the 2000 election of George W. Bush in the United States
• the NATO interventions in Kosovo and the former Yugoslavia
• the implications for international political communication of
11 September 2001
• the emergence of al-Quaida and the war on terror.

Brian McNair is Reader in the Department of Film and Media
Studies at Stirling University. He is the author of News and
Journalism in the UK (fourth edition, 2003), The Sociology of
Journalism (1998), and Journalism and Democracy (2000).