This work provides evidence that the way the American news and broadcast media cover political issues and events causes increased voter cynicism and non-participation. It examines how the media covers political campaigns and significant legislation, such as the passage of health care reform.

"This is an important study with a research model that is an excellent paradigm for students of media and of democratic processes. The methods of testing and of analysis are fully explained....it is invaluable to have the work of scholars like these that so cleanly demonstrates a way to handle the attitudinal causes for political behaviors and a philosophy of the public good."--Publishing Research Quarterly "Takes the connection between strategic coverage and public cynicism and subjects it to the most rigorous analysis and testing anyone could wish for."--Star Ledger "Capella and Jamieson provide convincing evidence that people exposed to coverage that focuses on strategy at the expense of issues are more cynical and less informed."--Eye Weekly "This landmark study is pregnant with profound implications on the proper coverage of politics by the mass media and the proper conduct of politics by citizens and elites alike. It merits a broad audience among politicians, journalists, and engaged citizens, and it promises to be an invaluable text in undergraduate and graduate courses."--Harvard International Journal of Press and Politics

"This is an important study with a research model that is an excellent paradigm for students of media and of democratic processes. The methods of testing and of analysis are fully explained....it is invaluable to have the work of scholars like these that so cleanly demonstrates a way to handle the attitudinal causes for political behaviors and a philosophy of the public good."--Publishing Research Quarterly "Takes the connection between strategic coverage and public cynicism and subjects it to the most rigorous analysis and testing anyone could wish for."--Star Ledger "Capella and Jamieson provide convincing evidence that people exposed to coverage that focuses on strategy at the expense of issues are more cynical and less informed."--Eye Weekly "This landmark study is pregnant with profound implications on the proper coverage of politics by the mass media and the proper conduct of politics by citizens and elites alike. It merits a broad audience among politicians, journalists, and engaged citizens, and it promises to be an invaluable text in undergraduate and graduate courses."--Harvard International Journal of Press and Politics

Kathleen Hall Jamieson is Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of a number of books, including Packaging the Presidency which won the Winans-Wichelns Book Award, and Eloquence in an Electronic Age which won the Speech Communication Association's Golden Anniversary Book Award, and Dirty Politics. Joseph N. Cappella is Professor in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and a fellow of the International Communication Association. He is the author Multivariate Techniques in Human Communication Research and Sequence and Pattern Communication Behaviors.