ABSTRACT
After ten years of research and writing, my book manuscript on how members of Congress use the media to shape policy was finished, or so I thought. Then the email from the publisher arrived, telling me that the editor liked the book proposal and sample chapters but he wanted me to include a chapter on television and social media. Ugh! That was in 2012, and I was the person who still had no Facebook account and was quite dubious that anyone could communicate anything of significance in 140 characters or less on Twitter. And now I was being told I had to conduct research on Congress and social media if I wanted my book to be published. Sometimes we get curious and do research because we want to know something; other times we do it because our editor wants to know something. If it meant my book would be published, I was willing to be curious about Congress and social media, though I reserved the right not to enjoy it.
