ABSTRACT
A full understanding of any modern, democratic political system requires some grasp of the role of the media and nowhere do the media play a more significant part in politics than in the United States. The focus of this study is the media as a news source. Following an introduction, the discussion notes the emergence of television and its eventual supplanting of newspapers as the principal means whereby Americans obtain political news. Consideration is given to legal and judicial developments in the 1960s that have helped to make the media in the US the freest in the world with exceptional opportunities to scrutinise politics and politicians. Events in the 1970s such as Vietnam, Watergate and changes in Democratic Party rules, which together brought about a sea change in journalistic attitudes and greatly magnified the role of the media in the political process, are also given particular attention. Further discussion centres on some of the problems of governability and touches on the consequences for foreign and national security policy making that follow from the emergence of satellite technology. The conclusion refers to the consequences for democracy arising from the various changes that have occurred in the past three decades.
