Karen S. Johnson-Cartee is professor in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations and in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Alabama.

Johnson-Cartee provides a well-researched and extensively documented summary of decades of research. Combining narrative theory with newsgathering techniques, she provides more theory than most practitioners generally read and more application than most theorists are likely to encounter—a useful mix that can serve as a model for other authors. The book's perspective—that news is a social construction of reality—is well illustrated. . . . Highly recommended.

• Chapter 1 IntroductionChapter 2 1 The Social Construction of RealityChapter 3 2 Public Opinion and Public PolicyChapter 4 3 Journalism at a CrossroadsChapter 5 4 Newsgathering Mythologies and Strategic RitualsChapter 6 5 News as NarrativeChapter 7 6 Actors in the Social Construction of NewsChapter 8 7 Standardization in FramingChapter 9 8 Personalized and Confrontational News FramingChapter 10 Appendix: The 1986 Drug War and Media ConvergenceChapter 11 References