This course examines the roles of campaigns and the mass media in United States politics. The mass media are a diverse group of news sources that include the elite media like NBC, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal as well as cable outlets, chat-rooms, bloggers, talk radio, Internet sites, and tabloid shows. The goals of this course are for students to understand the forces that shape the information that these sources provide and the impact of this information on citizens, politicians, and public policy.