Political news is news about politics and government that can be found in newspapers, magazines, radio, television, or the internet. It can cover local, state, national, and international politics as well as public policy and political affairs. The most important part of political news is that it should be accurate and fact-checked. If not, it can give journalism a bad name. Political news should also be interesting to readers.
Political journalism has evolved over the years. Once it was limited to network TV and major national newspapers and magazines. Today, cable channels and newspaper websites compete with 24-hour online news services. Moreover, users can customize their news on any topic they are interested in through RSS feeds and news aggregators. Then they can share their views on these topics on personal blogs, social networking sites and other web-based communities.
It is widely accepted that the media plays a crucial role in a democratic society. It is the main source of information about political events for individual citizens, societal groups, and nation-states. It is also recognized that the picture of reality presented by the media, whether it is true or false, accurate or distorted, influences the political behavior of citizens, societal groups, and leaders.
While the majority of Americans continue to get most of their election-related news from television, many people now go online for campaign information. They are more likely to seek out sites with an overtly partisan point of view and less inclined to visit sites that profess to be neutral.