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Ground Wars: Personalized Communication in Political Campaigns, by Rasmus Kleis Nielsen

choice among hundreds of cable channels, [have] combined to diffuse audiences over larger numbers of news sources . . . [the result might be that] the former tight linkage among the levels of the traditional political communication hierarchy could loosen” (p. 210). It is unclear how much longer mainstream media will dominate the framing of public affairs, and, for that reason, how much longer scholarly conventional wisdom—including activation theory—will hold. The pace of change in and around journalism casts doubt on the usefulness of Entman’s proposals for media reform. Listed in the last chapter of the book, these reforms are predicated on the notion that traditional news organizations inhabited by professional journalists will remain dominant in the news system. For instance, Entman talks of implementing “standardized decision-making” processes in newsrooms so that reporters can make consistent, reasoned choices about how to report presidential misconduct (pp. 194, 202). And he recommends the establishment of a “scandal editor” position in newsrooms. Such proposals might have made sense in the “high modernist” era of journalism. However, it is unclear how relevant they are to the more fragmented media and political universe in which we increasingly live. Overall, Entman’s study is excellent. He convincingly shows that activation theory explains how and why scandal coverage occurs, and more often, fails to occur. At the same time, looking forward, the book may also serve as the summation of a body of knowledge about a media and political system that is quickly receding.