Politics and the media have been inseparable from the founding of our country down to the present day. In the colonial era media came in the form of local newspapers and printed broadsheet tacked up on bulletin boards and distributed by hand. Today media has evolved into the cybernetic world of the internet. In order to understand how the American political system works it is necessary to understand the fundamentally central role that media plays in all its various forms. That’s where “Political Campaigns And Political Advertising: A Media Literacy Guide” by Frank W. Baker (a professional media consultant and the webmaster of Media Literacy Clearinghouse) proves to be such a highly recommended addition to academic and community library Political Science reference collections. “Political Campaigns And Political Advertising” begins by defining the term ‘media literacy’, the concepts of propaganda and ‘spin’, the role of media consultants, the media categories of photography, radio, television, political advertising, campaign event analysis, and the new internet media applications and technologies. Of special note is the chapter focused on ‘Trying to Fix the Money Problem in Elections’. Enhanced with the inclusion of a glossary, a resources list, and an index, “Political Campaigns And Political Advertising” is especially commended to the attention of the non-specialist general reader with an interest in the role media plays in American politics today.
