In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Acknowledgments Writing a book seems quite deceptively to be a solitary undertaking . In reality, I owe an enormous amount of credit to the many smart and supportive people surrounding me over the past six or so years. I am forever grateful for the education I received from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania as both a master ’s and doctoral student. I offer my sincere thanks to the faculty, staff, and students. Specifically, Michael Delli Carpini and Carolyn Marvin provided key insights at different stages of this work. I also benefitted from discussions with Eran Ben-Porath, Carrie Brown, Nicole Maurantonio, and Monroe Price. Above all, this work exists because of the guiding hand of Barbie Zelizer. I am proud to have been her student. I am fortunate to have received useful feedback in making this text into a book. In particular, Carolyn Kitch and Claire Wardle offered fantastic advice during the prospectus stage of this work. Much of the writing was completed at Saint Louis University. At SLU, Kathleen Farrell offered her enthusiasm and support for this book from the moment I stepped on campus. Caroline Jack and Jason Peifer were indispensible in helping me through final revisions . At University of Illinois Press, John Nerone, Tad Ringo, and Kendra Boileau helped me make this the best book that it could be. Finally, I want to thank my family for their support: my mother Judy and father Gary, my brothers Eric and Dave, and sister Barbie. And then there is my new family: my wonderfully perceptive and encouraging wife Curtis and, most precious of all, my daughter Lizzie. I offer my sincere gratitude to everyone for making this book a reality. i-x_1-206_Carl.indd 9 2/23/11 2:24:53 PM i-x_1-206_Carl.indd 10 1/21/11 2:48:28 PM ...

Share