is an exciting collection of original essays introducing undergraduate students and interested readers to the important role that the media and popular culture have in shaping their lives and views on politics. Written by both political scientists and journalists, this book looks at the diverse ways television, movies, the internet, and even soap operas mold public opinion and define how we view political reality. However, as these essays will reveal, this socialization is not all benign. Instead, this book reveals a corporate media increasingly trapped by the demands to inform, entertain, and make a profit – often at times distorting reality by transforming criminals into heroes, assassination theories into fact, and participatory government into a spectator sport. Overall, ! explores the limits and possibilities of the media and emerging information technologies as they shape political perceptions and politics into the twenty-first century.