Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency

Gellman and Becker’s four-part series examined the most powerful vice president in history, providing a greater public understanding of the Bush-Cheney era.

The Mass Media and the Dynamics of American Racial Attitudes

Paul M. Kellstedt explains the variation in Americans’ racial attitudes over the last half-century, particularly the relationship between media coverage of race and American public opinion on race. The analyses reveal that racial policy preferences have evolved in an interesting and unpredicted (if not unpredictable) fashion over the past fifty years. There have been sustained periods of liberalism, where the public prefers an active government to bring about racial equality, and these periods are invariably followed by eras of conservatism, where the public wants the government to stay out of racial politics altogether. These opinions respond to cues presented in the national media. Kellstedt then examines the relationship between attitudes on the two major issues of the twentieth century: race and the welfare state.

Collective Preferences in Democratic Politics: Opinion Surveys and the Will of the People

Althaus’ analysis of the relationship between knowledge, representation, and political equality (in opinion surveys) leads to surprising answers. Knowledge does matter, and the way it is dispensed in society can cause collective preferences to reflect opinions disproportionately.

Friends in High Places: Perks of Power

Phil Williams and Bryan Staples of WTVF-TV, Nashville, TN, focused on the unethical conduct of many Tennessee public officials, including the then-president of the University of Tennessee.

Profiting from Public Service

Gannett New Jersey Newspapers shed light on the abuse of power by some New Jersey Legislators for the benefit of their family and friends.

The Campus Files: Reagan, Hoover and the UC Red Scare

An investigation of how then-governor Reagan and FBI head J. Edgar Hoover had abused their power at the University of California, Berkeley. It took Rosenfeld 17 years to overcome legal hurdles preventing him from publishing the story.

Processing Politics: Learning from Television in the Internet Age

Integrating a broad range of current research on how people learn (from political science, social psychology, communication, physiology, and artificial intelligence), Doris Graber shows that televised presentations—at their best—actually excel at transmitting information and facilitating learning. She critiques current political offerings in terms of their compatibility with our learning capacities and interests, and she considers the obstacles, both economic and political, that affect the content we receive on the air, on cable, or on the Internet.

Corruption in the Wisconsin Capitol

The Wisconsin State Journal in Madison, Wis., uncovered widespread corruption in state government.

Exposing the Flaws

The Sentinel ran a yearlong series investigating what went wrong with the Florida vote in 2000, how many votes might have been lost, and how the system could be repaired for the future.

Politicians Don’t Pander: Political Manipulation and the Loss of Democratic Responsiveness

This book asks us to reexamine whether our government really responds to the broad public or to the narrower interests and values of certain groups.