Is social media destroying democracy? Are Russian propaganda or "Fake news" entrepreneurs on Facebook undermining our sense of a shared reality? A conventional wisdom has emerged since the election of Donald Trump in 2016 that new technologies and their manipulation by foreign actors played a decisive role in his victory and are responsible for the sense of a "post-truth" moment in which disinformation and propaganda thrives. Network Propaganda challenges that received wisdom through the most comprehensive study yet published on media coverage of American presidential politics from the start of the election cycle in April 2015 to the one year anniversary of the Trump presidency. Analyzing millions of news stories together with Twitter and Facebook shares, broadcast television and YouTube, the book provides a comprehensive overview of the architecture of contemporary American political communications. Through data analysis and detailed qualitative case studies of coverage of immigration, Clinton scandals, and the Trump Russia investigation, the book finds that the right-wing media ecosystem operates fundamentally differently than the rest of the media environment. The authors argue that longstanding institutional, political, and cultural patterns in American politics interacted with technological change since the 1970s to create a propaganda feedback loop in American conservative media. This dynamic has marginalized centre-right media and politicians, radicalized the right wing ecosystem, and rendered it susceptible to propaganda efforts, foreign and domestic. For readers outside the United States, the book offers a new perspective and methods for diagnosing the sources of, and potential solutions for, the perceived global crisis of democratic politics

The level of discourse in campaigns and elections ideally should elevate citizens' knowledge about the candidates and the issues that face the polity. But elections today are often beset by negative campaigns and an emphasis on the "horse race" over issues of substance. Running on Empty? looks at sixteen carefully selected, highly competitive races in the House and Senate during the 2002 midterm elections. Measuring various aspects of campaign discourse throughout a wide variety of paid and unpaid media coverage-including radio, TV, newspapers, direct mail, and the Internet-the authors arrive at some arresting conclusions about the quality of the messages conveyed, whether positive or negative. In all, this impressive set of original essays by political experts provides a timely assessment of the effectiveness of media reform and the democratization of campaign discourse in theory compared to practice.