Information and Democracy

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.

• 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.

'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