- beats: Specific locations from which news frequently emanates, such as Congress or the White House.
- broadcast media: Television and radio
- chains: Massive media conglomerates that control newspapers
- high-tech politics: A politics in which the behavior of citizens and policymakers, as well as the political agenda itself, is increasingly shaped by technology.
- investigative journalism: The use of detective-like reporting methods to unearth scandals.
- mass media: Television, radio, newspapers, magazines, the Internet, and other means of popular communication.
- media event: Events purposely staged for the media that nonetheless look spontaneous.
- narrowcasting: Media programming on TV or the Internet that is focused on one topic and aimed at a particular audience
- policy agenda: The 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.
- press conferences: Meetings of public officials with reporters.
- print media: Newspapers and magazines
- sound bites: Short video clips of approximately 15 seconds; typically all that is shown from a politician's speech or activities on the nightly television news.
- talking head: A shot of a person's face talking directly to the camera
- trial balloons: An international news leak for the purpose of assessing the political reaction