ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on television that depicts American political culture. It explains the role of fake news in engaging with contemporary political discourse. Many people who watch political comedy do so because of a pre-existing interest in that material, whereas someone who consumes local or national news may do so inadvertently or ambiently, as background noise while doing other things. The Federal Elections Commission (FEC) prohibited the government from restricting political spending by both non-profit and for-profit corporations, a decision that reversed prevailing rules that prevented corporations from directly endorsing political candidates. In addition to the challenges of redefining television in the on-demand era, one also face the difficulty of defining how political television fits into larger concepts of citizenship.
