Online News

This is a first-rate research project; it is §comprehensive and thoroughly analyzed. It reports a §multidimensional examination of the evolution and §effects of Internet-based news sources. The author §advances from an individual-level focus on the uses §of online news and how the acquisition affects the §use of other news media to an examination of social-§level issues dealing with news learning and agenda §setting. She addresses both the recent evolution of §popular media use and the implications of those §developments. The book greatly adds to our §understanding of news. Its adds an important level §of detail to existing analyses of media use and §displacement, the natural survey setting complements §the experimental context of prior research on §audience learning and agenda development, and the §studies reported here sensibly (though uniquely) §explicitly distinguish between different types of §news sites. The studies tell us quite a bit about §how people choose among sites and how those choices §may affect learning. This book is sure to §substantially impact political communication §research. David Tewksbury, University of §Illinois at Urbana-Champaign