| Term | Definition |
|---|
| High-tech politics | politics in which the behavior of citizens and policymakers and the agenda itself are shaped by technology |
| Mass media | television, radio, newspapers, magazines, the Internet, and other means of popular communication. |
| Media events | events purposely staged for the media that nonetheless look spontaneous. In keeping with politics as theater, media events can be staged by individuals, groups, and government officials, especially presidents. |
| Press conferences | meetings of public officials with reporters. |
| Investigative journalism | the use of in-depth reporting to unearth scandals, scams, and schemes, which at times puts reporters in adversarial relationships with political leaders. |
| Print media | newspapers and magazines |
| Broadcast media | television and radio |
| Narrowcasting | media programming on cable TV or the Internet that is focused on one topic and aimed at a particular audience. Examples include MTV, ESPN, and C-SPAN. |
| Chains | newspapers published by massive media conglomerates that account for almost three-quarters of the nation’s daily circulation. |
| Beats | specific locations from which news frequently emanates, such as Congress or the White House. Most top reporters work a particular beat, thereby becoming specialists in what goes on at that location. |
| Trial balloons | intentional news leak for the purpose of assessing the political reaction. |
| Sound bites | short video clips; typically all that is shown from a politician’s speech or activities on the nightly television news. |
| Talking head | shot of a person’s face talking directly to the camera. Because this is visually unappealing, the major commercial networks rarely show a politician talking one-on-one for very long. |
| Policy agenda | issues that attract the serious attention of public officials and other people actively involved in politics at the time. |
| Policy entrepreneurs | people who invest their political “capital” in an issue. According to John Kingdon, a policy entrepreneur “could be in or out of government, in elected or appointed positions, interest groups or research organizations.” |
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