PART 1: 1. Democracy and Mass Media 2. Information, fiction, and public opinion 3. From propaganda to the rhetoric of transparency 4. Politics in the Internet: participation and control 5. Media and social change PART 2: 1. Conceptualization and historic evolution of the media in the political arena 2. Media, agenda-setting and public opinion. 3. Types and styles of communication in collective political actors 4. Electoral campaigns 5. Research methods and techniques applied to political communication