Making Laws and Making News: Media Strategies in the U.S. House of Representatives

By Timothy E. Cook

Book Overview

The news media, especially television, have become a fixture on Capitol Hill in the past twenty years. Making Laws and Making News describes the interactive relationship between the press and Congress that strongly affects the news, the legislative process, and the types of laws enacted. Instead of focusing on how reporters decide who and what to cover and how news is resented, Cook examines the other side of the equation--the relationship between the media strategies of House member's press offices and the legislative strategies of the members themselves. The book won the 1990 Benjamin Franklin Award for Excellence in Independent Publishing.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0815715579
• ISBN13: 9780815715573
• Release Date: August 1990
• Publisher: Globe Pequot Publishing Group Inc/Bloomsbury
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A classic

This is a classic account of the intersection between media and legislating. Tim Cook takes both a broad look at legislators' media strategies and more closely at some specific cases. This is political science, not political drama, so it will be especially helpful for academic purposes. However it is also highly interesting and not as dry as some political science. The book's one flaw is that it is aging. Cook's observations were made prior to the rise of Newt Gingrich and his media-intensive style of governance. There is still a big distinction between a "work horse" and a "show horse" in "Making Laws and Making News." Now that Newt's gone, perhaps equilibrium has been restored and the norms described in this book are coming back into vogue. If not, it is still an invaluable comparative resource - I'm certainly not aware of any other source that looks at this particular subject. After all this time "Making Laws and Making News" is still a headliner.