Richard M. Perloff, Distinguished Professor of Communication, Political Science, and Psychology at Cleveland State University, is well known for his scholarship on the third-person effect, political communication, and persuasion. Perloff has published articles in Communication Research, Communication Theory, and Mass Communication and Society, receiving a 2024 Article of the Year Award for a co-authored article (with L.J. Shen) on the third-person effect. He has published numerous essays in The Cleveland Plain Dealer and letters over the past several decades in The New York Times. A dedicated teacher, Perloff has received awards for his teaching at Cleveland State University.

PART ONE: FOUNDATIONS OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION 1. Introduction 2. Defining and Understanding Contemporary Politics 3. Defining and Understanding Political Communication 4. Philosophy, Democracy, and Political Communication PART TWO: POLITICAL COMMUNICATION CONCEPTS AND EFFECTS 5. The Scholarly Study of Political Communication 6. Political Socialization, News, and Citizenship 7. The Political Communication Effects Triumvirate: Agenda-setting, Priming, and Framing 8. The Partisan Psychology of Political Communication: From Selective Perception to Social Media Effects 9. Presidential Rhetoric From Television to Tweeting 10. Understanding the Biases and Underpinnings of Political News 11. Macro Determinants of Political News PART THREE: PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN PROCESSES: EFFECTS AND ISSUES 12. Presidential Nominations in the Media Age 13. Political Advertising and Marketing in Presidential Election Campaigns 14. Presidential Debates and Postscript