Agenda Setting

by Dearing, James W.; Rogers, Everett M.

• ISBN13: 9780761905622
• ISBN10: 0761905626
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1996-12-19
• Publisher: Sage Pubns

Summary

What is the major social problem in the news today? Who made it so important? Social issues that are widely recognized on the media agenda often demand attention on the public agenda, and in turn move quickly up the policy agenda, creating policy changes.Based on research of contemporary social issues that have hit the headlines - including the war on drugs, drink-driving, the Exxon Valdez oil spillage, AIDS and the Ethiopian famine - this book provides important theoretical and practical insights into the agenda-setting process and its role in effecting social change.

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
Steven H. Chaffee
Preface	ix
What Is Agenda-Setting?	1	(23)
Agenda-Setting as a Political Process	1	(4)
The Media Agenda, Public Agenda, and Policy Agenda	5	(2)
The Chapel Hill Study	6	(1)
Salience as the Key in Agenda-Setting	7	(1)
History of Agenda-Setting Research	8	(5)
The Search for Media Effects	13	(3)
Three Research Traditions	16	(1)
Measuring Agendas	17	(2)
The Rise and Fall of the War on Drugs	19	(3)
Summary	22	(1)
Notes	23	(1)
Media Agenda Studies	24	(16)
Media Advocacy for Drunk Driving	25	(3)
Real-World Indicators and the Media Agenda	28	(3)
AIDS and the Media Agenda in San Francisco	30	(1)
Influencing the Media Agenda	31	(2)
Similarity of Media Coverage of an Issue	33	(2)
Measuring the Media Agenda	35	(4)
The Exxon Valdez and the Environment	37	(2)
Summary	39	(1)
Notes	40	(1)
Public Agenda Studies: The Hierarchy Approach	40	(14)
The Issues of the 1960s	41	(4)
Measuring the Public Agenda	45	(4)
Evidence for the Influence of the Media Agenda on the Public Agenda	49	(1)
Intervening Variables in Predicting the Public Agenda	50	(2)
The Role of Personal Experience With Issues	52	(1)
Summary	53	(1)
Notes	53	(1)
Public Agenda Studies: Longitudinal Approaches	54	(18)
The Issue of AIDS in the United States	56	(4)
The Issue-Attention Cycle	60	(2)
How an Issue Gets on the Public Agenda	62	(1)
Experimental Research	62	(4)
A Threshold in Public Attention	64	(2)
Issue Displacement as a Zero-Sum Game	66	(1)
Time in Agenda-Setting Research	67	(4)
How the Ethiopian Famine Got on the Agenda	69	(2)
Summary	71	(1)
Notes	71	(1)
Policy Agenda Studies	72	(16)
The Media-Policy Relationship	74	(4)
Media Coverage and Decision Making in Washington	76	(2)
From the Issue of Power to the Power of Issues	78	(3)
Investigative Reporting and Policy Making in Chicago	79	(2)
Studying the Policy Agenda	81	(6)
Setting the Agenda in the U.S. Senate	84	(3)
Summary	87	(1)
Notes	87	(1)
Studying the Agenda-Setting Process	88	(13)
Comparisons Among Agenda-Setting Approaches	89	(1)
Generalizations About Agenda-Setting	90	(2)
Toward Disaggregation in Agenda-Setting Research	92	(3)
Research Questions for Future Study	95	(4)
The Need for Multimethod Research Designs	99	(1)
Agenda-Setting in Democratic Societies	99	(2)
References	101	(8)
Suggested Readings	109	(20)
Author Index	129	(4)
Subject Index	133	(6)
About the Authors	139