Over the past 45 years, award-winning sociologist David L. Altheide has illuminated how media formats and media logic affect our understanding of social issues, of how political decisions are made, and of how we relate to each other. In this masterful, summative work, Altheide describes the media syndrome: how these factors shape our expectations of, and reactions to, both public and personal events. Ideal for courses on mass media and political communication, the book provides a detailed description of the media syndrome and its impact on daily life; uses historical and contemporary examples from Watergate to Edward Snowden; includes the changes in the ecology of communication from mass media to social media and its social impact.