This book investigates how individual politicians and political parties strategically make use of the media to reach their political goals. Looking beyond a purely Americentric viewpoint, the chapters present data from more than ten Western democracies to argue that the media are both a source of information and an arena for political communication. This double functional role of the media is examined from both a theoretical and an empirical perspective, including chapters dealing with different aspects of politics - from campaigning to law making - and within different political contexts. The role of the news media is discussed from the perspective of the political actor, focusing on both the opportunities and the constraints the news media provide, resulting in a multidisciplinary text that will appeal to students and scholars of both communication and political science.

Peter Van Aelst and Stefaan Walgrave are professors in political science at the University of Antwerp, Belgium and leading members of the research group Media, Movements and Politics(www.M2P.be). They have published widely on the relationship between media an d politics and the agenda-setting role of the media.

1.Information and Arena. The Dual Function of the News Media for Political Elites, Peter Van Aelst, Stefaan Walgrave.- Part 1.- 2. An intervening intermediary. Making political sense of media influence, Gunnar Thesen.- 3. Celebrities as Political Actors and Entertainment as Political Media, Amber E. Boydstun, Regina G. Lawrence.- 4. Political Public Relations and Mediatization: The Strategies of News Management, Jesper Strömbäck, Frank Esser.- 5. Too powerful or just doing their job? Explaining Differences in Conceptions of Media Power among Politicians and Journalists, Rens Vliegenthart, Morten Skovsgaard.- Part 2.- 6. What Politicians Learn from the Mass Media and Why They React to it. An Analytical Framework, Julie Sevenans.- 7. The Media Dependency of Political Elites, Stefaan Walgrave, Julie Sevenans, Alon Zoizner, Matthew Ayling.- 8. When do Politicians React to the Media: How the attitudes and goals of political elites moderate the effect of the media on the political agenda, Alon Zoizner, Yair Fogel-Dror, Tamir Sheafer.- Part 3.- 9. Moving Beyond the Single Mediated Arena Model: Media Uses and Influences Across Three Arenas, Aeron Davis.- 10. The Charm of Salient Issues? Parties Strategic Behavior in Press Releases, Caroline Dalmus, Regula Hänggli, Laurent Bernhard.- 11. Does News tone Affect the Government in the News?, Christoffer Green-Pedersen, Peter B. Mortensen, Gunnar Thesen.- Part 4.- 12. Why the Media Matters for Politicians. A Study on the Strategic Use of Mass Media in Lawmaking, Lotte Melenhorst, Peter Van Aelst.- 13. Information Source and Political Arena: How Actors from Inside and Outside Politics Use the Media, Nayla Fawzi.- 14. Elaborating and specifying the information& arena framework, Stefaan Walgrave& Peter Van Aelst.