The study of political communication has reached a new level of maturity. Just as the field has attained recognition as a vital area of inquiry, however, the focus of its core concern, mass communication, faces radical transformation. New technologies for targeting individuals and sophisticated methods for shaping personalized messages have begun to reconstruct politics and relations among individuals in society.At the same time that the individual communication experience is changing rapidly, the public policy environment in many nations favors laissez faire, market solutions for issues ranging from distribution and use of bandwidth, to social responsibility in program content, to the cost and content of the messages in elections and public policy campaigns.

The coincidence of a new millennium with a new era of mediated communication offers a propitious moment to rethink the field of political communication. This book explores the changing media environments facing contemporary democracy and suggests new theoretical directions for the field. Since the communication environment raises profound questions about the role of citizens and the conduct of democracy, the book also considers important normative issues that emerge within this transformed communication landscape. By combining new developments in political communication with core questions about politics and policy, we hope in this volume to set new benchmarks and perspectives for development of the field.

We were fortunate in this enterprise to have two opportunities to gather as a group to debate and discuss the issues facing mediated democracies today. The generous funding of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania enabled workshops to be held in Washington, DC, and Philadelphia.