ELA

More than three decades after the Clean Water Act, two iconic waterways—the great coastal estuaries of Puget Sound and the Chesapeake Bay—are in perilous condition. With polluted runoff still flowing in from industry, agriculture and massive suburban development, scientists fear contamination to the food chain and drinking water for millions of people.

Within a single generation, the Web and digital media have remade nearly every aspect of modern culture, transforming the way we work, learn and socialize in ways that we are only beginning to understand.

FRONTLINE takes an in-depth look at the multibillion-dollar "persuasion industries" of advertising and public relations. To cut through mass-media clutter and to overcome consumers' growing resistance to their pitches, marketers have developed new ways of integrating their messages deeper into the fabric of our lives.