Choosing six Mexican newspapers representing an ideological range from liberal to conservative, a study analyzed the content of the newspapers' editorials and political columns from 1951 through 1980. Data established that Mexican newspapers, contrary to many critics' judgments, criticized government policies and political figures. They did,…

This discussion of agenda setting reviews early theories of mass communication and traces the beginnings of agenda setting theory to the 1968 United States presidential campaign, during which researchers found a high correlation between what the media were saying about issues and what the people thought were important issues. The results of more…

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…

To investigate whether political assertions were interjected into American sports coverage of the 1984 Olympic games and which direction those assertions took, a study examined the Los Angeles Times' coverage of the games in its award-winning special supplement sections. The "Times" included these special supplements in its papers from…

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…

In an interview at a Speech Communication Association conference in 1975, Walter Cronkite of CBS news was asked a number of questions on the role and characteristics of television news. Among the items discussed with Mr. Cronkite were the following: the degree to which events are shaped by their being reported on national news programs; the news…

This study examines data from several national polls about press coverage during the Watergate scandal, in order to assess the origins of press criticism. The polls were conducted between 28 September and 6 October 1973, during June 1974, and in August 1974. The data suggest that political variables--particularly support of Nixon, party…

Intended to summarize the ideals underlying the struggle for freedom of the press and to reinforce the basic Constitutional principles upon which the United States functions, this collection of quotations reflects the beliefs of prominent people throughout history who have championed press freedom, as well as the ideas of some who have opposed it.…

This paper analyzes the attitudes of three Swedish trade unions toward the press. Local representatives of the unions answered a questionnaire about their contact with the local press, the press's impact on public opinion, fairness of press reporting, the press's fulfillment of its duties in informing the public, and future control of mass media.…

A study analyzed U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell's court opinions on First Amendment issues that affect the daily work of journalists. The results showed that he preferred compromises, guidelines, and tests to either/or solutions. Because Powell sought to balance all interests, he developed no firm theoretical position on the First…

A study was conducted to test the hypothesis that the mass media act as agents of social control by varying the coverage of political groups in relation to how deviant they perceive the groups to be. Editors from the 100 largest daily newspapers in the United States were asked to rate 11 political groups on four scales thought to measure political…

Explains how differential coverage of politics, policy, and personality regarding the same two events in three different media--a local newspaper, an elite newspaper, and television network news--reveals three different portraits of presidential concerns and actions. (MM)

In January 1983, the American public read or saw hard-hitting allegations of leftist bias by the National Council of Churches (NCC) in the largest circulation magazine, "Reader's Digest," and on the top-rated television program, "60 Minutes." A study examined the extent to which the media set the agenda for debate on this…