Capturing News Capturing Democracy

This book tells the chilling story of what happened at Voice of America (VOA) when Trump appointees and their allies captured the public service network. It explains how different forms of politicization combined to change how VOA reported on important events from the Black Lives Matter movement to the presidential election, and its contested aftermath. It also demonstrates how the capture of VOA fed into broader forms of democratic backsliding within the US itself. The book develops a new analytical framework for understanding how media capture unfolds and recommends ways of safeguarding our media and our democracy from future attacks.