ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces Fixing American Politics, a distinctive book indeed. In an age featuring an increasingly complex media system as well as unprecedented political polarization, we need fresh thinking to make politics more civil and more productive. Accordingly, the book asks its authors to draw on their considerable research skills to define the most pressing problems of the day but also to imagine potential solutions. When responding, some of the authors look to the past, while others look to the latest technologies. Some authors ask us to reach out to those who are different from us, while other authors call for great militancy, directly confronting entrenched forms of power. Some authors envision ways for the mass media to become more responsive – and more responsible – while other authors see a crucial role for social media. But whether focusing on journalistic practices, political campaigning, popular culture, public policy deliberations, or the nation’s changing demographics, all the authors agree that there is much work to be done. Hence this book.
