Kathryn Cramer Brownell is associate professor of history at Purdue University. Her research and teaching focus on the intersections of media, politics, and popular culture, with a particular emphasis on the American presidency. Her first book, Showbiz Politics: Hollywood in American Political Life (University of North Carolina Press, 2014), examines the institutionalization of entertainment styles and structures in American politics and the rise of the celebrity presidency. Her second book, 24/7 Politics: Cable Television and the Fragmenting of America from Watergate to Fox News, which will published this August by Princeton University Press, excavates how the growth of cable television transformed American political life by tethering politics to profits and catering to narrow audiences rather than finding common ground.
