ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 included, in its list of political actors, media institutions and those who work in them. This draws our attention to the fact that in contemporary liberal democracies media institutions perform not only cognitive functions of information dissemination but also interpretative functions of analysis, assessment and comment. Not only do the media report politics; they are a crucial part of the environment in which politics is pursued. They contribute to policy discussion and resolution, not only in so far as they set public agendas or provide platforms for politicians to make their views known to the public, but also in judging and critiquing the variety of political viewpoints in circulation. In this chapter we examine the many formats in which the overtly interpretative work of the political media is done.
