This module looks behind the headlines about politics and analyses the processes by which those headlines are created. It encourages students to think about the way in which we engage with politics. Are we being persuaded about our politics or are we being subject to propaganda? Is war only what we see on our TV screens or read about in the newspaper? Do politicians have to be telegenic to be elected? Does it matter if our only source of news is via the internet? Can new media really been seen as the cause of revolution? These are just some of the questions which we might discuss. This module also links together processes of politics and communication to ask some of the `big' political questions of the day: what is being communicated politically to us, by whom, and why? What methods do elites use to communicate to us? And how do we as citizens communicate politically to elites? And what impact does that communication have on our politics? Centred around issues of ideology and power, and combining theory and empirics, this module asks questions about the nature of politics and communication through a range of topics which may include: election campaigns; spin; war and foreign policy; the political economy of news production; common sense; politics beyond the nation state; and revolution.