In general, after you finish reading and studying this chapter, you should understand the following:

• the evolution of the press from the party-based newspapers of the 1790s through the yellow journalism of the 1890s to radio, television, and the Internet today, and its changing audience from literate elites to virtually everybody
• the current structure and role of the media. It is very important to remember that media are plural—so the word includes print media, radio, television, cable TV, the Internet....
• contemporary trends in media attention. Since Watergate, the media have loved investigative journalism, more recently there is tabloid TV and intrusive examinations of the private lives of public figures
• the media's influence on the public and whether public opinion is really swayed by the media
• the ways politicians use the media and attempt to influence press coverage for their own ends

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