Agenda setting provides an analysis strategy for linking press coverage and voter perceptions of front runners, and underscores the importance of studying the primaries early in an election year. Two studies were undertaken in 1976. The first study, in Onandaga County (New York), involved telephone interviews of 335 registered Democrats in late…

Presidential candidates in the United States tend to seek consensus rather than to try to discover new answers to problems and to convince voters that they should be elected to implement those answers. Reporters in the mass media emphasize objectivity and fairness in their reporting. This emphasis produces an intense interest in the…

The relationship between the media and public opinion concerning national elections is examined. Trends in public opinion and media emphasis were analyzed according to attention to political issues, ideological concepts, and party identification. A random sample of approximately 220 presidential election stories in the New York Times was taken for…

It is widely accepted that the news media, especially in specific expressions of press opinion, have the effect of setting the agenda of issues in many political campaigns. The nature and extent of such agenda-setting is not yet established, although a study of two test newspapers tends to define further this effect. An analysis of the…

The purpose of this book is to explore the effects of public opinion on governmental policy making, with a special focus on the role of the mass media in this process. Specific areas covered include political campaigning, the President and the press, blacks and the media, and cable television. Topics of discussion in the ten chapters are: linkage…