Long ago dubbed the fourth branch of government, the American press remains to most of the general public an inscrutable enterprise whose influence and behavior are alternately welcomed and maligned; yet the proper functioning of a democracy depends upon a media-literate populace to act as the ultimate watchdog. With wit and authority, John Hamilton and George Krimsky lead readers through the whirl of print journalism. They offer a curiosity-satisfying blend of explanation and interpretation, history, anecdotes aplenty, and statistical analysis to show what's wrong and what works with today’s newspapers. 

John Maxwell Hamilton, a former foreign correspondent, is the author of Journalism's Roving Eye: A History of American Foreign Reporting and other books. He is executive vice chancellor and provost of Louisiana State University, LSU Foundation Hopkins P. Breazeale Professor, and the founding dean of LSU's Manship School of Mass Communication.