At this pivotal moment for politicians, the news media, and democracy itself, when the news is filled daily with accounts of women and racial minorities stepping up to demand justice in the courts, streets and at the ballot box, a new book, Politics and the Media: Intersections and New Directions (CQ Press, 2021), by award-winning journalist and American University School of Communication (AU SOC) professor Jane Hall gives welcome context to these historic events.

In the book, Hall examines how media and political institutions interact to shape public thinking and debates around social problems, cultural norms, and policies. When exploring the roles of race and gender in American politics to the 2020 elections and the global coronavirus pandemic, Hall draws from years of experience as an active political media analyst She lays out how media technologies, practices, and formats shape political decision making; how political forces influence media institutions; and how public opinion and media audiences are formed. The book is available for purchase at Amazon.com and CQ Press.

Politics and the Media: Intersections and New Directions can be used both for teaching and reading by general audiences. It reflects professor Hall’s work as a journalist covering the news media, her research and scholarly writing and her teaching politics and the media and reporting to students at AU, where she specializes in researching, writing and teaching about the intersection of politics and the media, particularly the depiction of women in media and politics, race and ethnicity in media and politics, young people and the news and media ethics overall.

Before joining American University, Hall was a journalist covering the news media, politics and policy for national publications, including nine years as the media correspondent for the Los Angeles Times in New York.  She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and winner of the Los Angeles Times Editor′s Award and the Los Angeles Press Club Award. This depth of experience allows Hall to put contemporary trends in a recent historical context, and explore the media across generations and platforms.

The book features research, analysis and case-studies, along with interviews with prominent journalists, politicians and critics of politics and the media, on the most important topics and issues in media and democracy today: women in media and politics, race and ethnicity in media and politics, polarization and disinformation, the debate over objectivity and accountability in journalism, young people and the news, political advertising, international news and other important topics.

It also includes excerpts from interviews Hall conducted on campus with NBC’s “Meet the Press” Moderator Chuck Todd; CNN Anchor and Chief Washington Correspondent Jake Tapper; Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.); “PBS NewsHour” White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor; former Washington Post Editor  Martin Baron; former Univision anchor and “Voice of Hispanic America” Maria Elena Salinas, CBS News senior White House and political correspondent and AU alumnus Ed O'Keefe, CNN Political Commentator Ana Navarro, and several Republican and Democratic political strategists.

Hall is moderator and executive producer for the long-running American Forum events series in Washington, D.C., interviewing prominent journalists and politicians with students on TV, public radio and online.