1. Media in Representative Democracy; 2. Public Responsiveness to Media; 3. Measuring the 'Media Signal'; 4. Alternative Measures of the Media Policy Signal; 5. The Accuracy of Media Coverage; 6. Policy, the Media, and the Public; 7. Diagnosing and Exploring Dynamics; 8: Policy and the Media: Past, Present and Future.
A large-scale empirical investigation into the frequency and accuracy of media coverage of public policy.
Stuart N. Soroka is Professor of Communication at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Adjunct Research Professor in the Center for Political Studies at the University of Michigan. Christopher Wlezien is Hogg Professor of Government, Department of Government, University of Texas at Austin.
'Information and Democracy is a major breakthrough in the study of
how large democracies process the two-way flow of information
between citizens and government. Through a fresh and thorough
empirical analysis of the policy content of U.S. news media, Soroka
and Wlezien show that media really act to facilitate the
transmission of the basic information necessary for citizens to
adjust their opinions about governmental policies. This book is
necessary reading for scholars of public opinion, political
communications, and public.' Bryan D. Jones, J.J. 'Jake' Pickle
Regents' Chair in Congressional Studies, University of Texas
'Stuart Soroka and Christopher Wlezien have written a masterful
book. Information and Democracy offers a challenge to overly
simplistic critiques of democratic representation, it provides a
nuanced assessment of the modern media environment, and it solves
one of the great puzzles of political science - how seemingly
uninformed publics respond systematically to policy change. This
book is theoretically rich, built on a trove of data, highly
accessible, and couldn't be more timely.' Peter K. Enns, Professor
of Government and Public Policy and Robert S. Harrison Director of
the Cornell Center for Social Sciences, Cornell University
'In the current political climate characterized by a multi-channel
and multi-platform information environment, media distrust, and
concerns about polarization and rampant misinformation, few
objectives seem more important than those set forth in this book.
Soroka and Wlezien navigate decades of theories on media functions,
behavior, and effects - which they complement with evidence from
analyses of a massive amount of data - to help us understand the
conditions under which democratic citizens are provided with
accurate (or inaccurate) information and with what effects. Readers
will come away with a better informed, evidence-based assessment of
how well media perform as democratic watchdog and the extent to
which citizens attend media accounts of government action and
respond to changes in public policy.' Johanna Dunaway, Associate
Professor of Political Science, Texas A&M University
'… this book provides a much-welcome proof of concept that the
media are capable of serving as an effective conduit of
information.' Emily Thorson, Perspectives on Politics
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