The notion that politics has become mediated (Bennett and Entman 2001;Nimmo and Combs 1983;Silverstone 2007) and mediatized (Cottle 2006;Kepplinger 2002;Mazzoleni and Schulz 1999;Schulz 2004) has gained currency over the last couple of decades.Although these concepts are often used, they are, however, more often referred to than properly defined or thoroughly discussed.Before engaging in our conceptual analysis, let us turn to an example to suggest how the media shape the portrayals and perceptions of political events.The three televised debates between Senators John McCain and Barack Obama during the 2008 U.S. presidential election campaign took place largely due to the presence of the media and their willingness to broadcast the events.Although political candidates faced off in debates before the advent of mass media, the presence of mass media-not the least, television-increased the potential audience dramatically and gave these events a new quality as major campaign events.The media also turned these debates into national events instead of local events focused primarily on those physically attending the debates.Televised political debates are thus typical examples of "media events" (Dayan and Katz 1992) and "pseudo-events" (Boorstin 1961), set up to suit the demands of the
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