Thinking Critically about Media and Politics

Thinking Critically About Media is a textbook for self-defence against manipulation by politicians the media and assorted propagandists. Its interdisciplinary application of principles of critical thinking and argumentative rhetoric can be incorporated in a variety of university courses including the social sciences communication journalism and media studies. The authors identify the precise political positions of a spectrum of American media and journalists from left to right so as to point students toward sources representing opposed viewpoints with their typical lines of argument in order to reach a comparative analysis. Other important issues dealt with include the various influences on political bias as propagated by sources such as lobbies public relations agencies think tanks and political advertising agencies.