Maintains that a required course in public policy analysis can serve as a natural capstone experience for undergraduate curricula in public administration. By teaching analysis, rather than teaching about analysis, undergraduate programs can integrate other elements of the curriculum and prepare students to understand the policy process more…

Analyzes evaluative comments made about the presidents in 40 U.S. government textbooks published over the last 7 years. These comments present an overwhelmingly negative and unrealistic picture of the presidency. Maintains that textbooks overrate the president's autonomous power and undervalue their positive contributions. (MJP)

Recommends that undergraduate journalism and communications majors receive more thorough training in local and public affairs education. Changes in communications technology have raised the importance and accessibility of local news for national candidates, often without a corresponding rise in sophistication of coverage. (MJP)

Maintains that the dynamics of public policy decisions, political power, mass media coverage, and public opinion have become so interconnected that it demands a new field of integrated study. Argues that the absence of this study leads to either overrating or undervaluing the mass media effect on politics. (MJP)

Praises the theoretical and methodological potential of the field of political communication. Calls for greater interaction and cross fertilization among the fields of political science, sociology, economics, and psychology. Briefly discusses relevant research methodologies. (MJP)

Recommends greater cooperation, especially concerning research, among political science, telecommunications, speech communications, and rhetoric. Discovers a useful paradigm in the combination of political content analysis and rhetorical analysis. Briefly discusses works that have synthesized these two approaches. (MJP)