title: Political Communication in Action: From Theory to Practice
author: David L. Helfert
description: A terrific mix of research and experience, filled with wisdom and insight. Helfert has the real stuff down about campaigning, the press, and what it takes to win. (John Daly, University of Texas at Austin)<br /><br />There is a lot more art than science to effective communication. Helfert pulls back the curtain, blows away the smoke, and breaks the mirrors to dispel the wizardry. (Mark McKinnon, chief media adviser to the George W. Bush campaign)<br /><br />Written plainly and from experience, this behind-the-scenes cookbook explains contemporary political communication in terms that students and nonscholars will understand, appreciate, and ultimately use.<br /> (Ralph J. Begleiter, University of Delaware)<br /><br />This text reads like a novel [and] behaves like a text book.... Highly recommended.<br /> (Choice)
zlib_text: ORIGINAL ARTICLE
  Political Communication in Media Society:
  Does Democracy Still Enjoy an Epistemic
  Dimension? The Impact of Normative
  Theory on Empirical Research1
  Ju¨ rgen Habermas
  Philosophy Department, Johann-Wolfgang Goethe Universita¨t Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
  I ﬁrst compare the deliberative to the liberal and the republican models of democracy,
  and consider possible references to empirical research and then examine what empirical
  evidence there is for the assumption that political deliberation develops a truth-tracking
  potential. The main parts of the paper serve to dispel prima facie doubts about the
  empirical content and the applicability of the communication model of deliberative
  politics. It moreover highlights 2 critical conditions: mediated political communication
  in the public sphere can facilitate deliberative legitimation processes in complex societies
  only if a self-regulating media system gains independence from its social environments
  and if anonymous audiences g