Thanks to the ready availability of political news today, informed citizens can protect and promote their own
interests and the public interest more effectively. Or can they? Murray Edelman argues against this conventional
interpretation of politics, one that takes for granted that we live in a world of facts and that people react rationally
to the facts they know. In doing so, he explores in detail the ways in which the conspicuous aspects of the political
scene are interpretations that systematically buttress established inequalities and interpretations already dominant
political ideologies.
Table of Contents
1. Some Premises about Politics
2. The Construction and Uses of Social Problems
3. The Construction and Uses of Political Leaders
4. The Construction and Uses of Political Enemies
5. The Ambiguities of Political News
6. Political Language and Political Reality
7. The Political Spectacle as Tactic and as Mystification
