New communication technologies have reshaped media and politics. But who are the new power players? The Hybrid Media System is a sweeping new theory of how political communication now works. Politics is increasingly defined by organizations, groups, and individuals who are best able to blend older and newer media logics, in what Andrew Chadwick terms a hybrid system. Power is wielded by those who create, tap, and steer information flows to suit their goals and in ways that modify, enable, and disable the power of others, across and between a range of older and newer media. By examining this system in flow, Chadwick reveals its complex balance of power. From American presidential campaigns to WikiLeaks, from live prime ministerial debates to hotly-contested political scandals, from the daily practices of journalists, campaign workers, and bloggers to the struggles of new activist organizations, the clash of media logics causes chaos and disintegration but also surprising new patterns of order and integration. With a new preface and chapter, the fully updated second edition applies the conceptual framework of the hybrid system to the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the rise of Donald Trump, illustrating the ways individuals blend new and old media systems to obtain political power.

Andrew Chadwick, Professor of Political Science, Department of Political Science and International Relations, Royal Holloway, University of London

Andrew Chadwick is Professor of Political Science and the Founding Director of the New Political Communication Unit in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is the author of the award-winning book Internet Politics: States, Citizens, and New Communication Technologies, co-editor (with Philip N. Howard) of The Handbook of Internet Politics, and the founding editor of the OUP book series, Oxford Studies in Digital Politics. http://www.andrewchadwick.com.