Utilizing both content analysis of 139 editorials appearing in 19 United States daily newspapers and the results of a survey of 146 newspaper editors, a study asked three questions: (1) To what extent is hunger covered in the news and editorial columns of U.S. daily newspapers? (2) How is hunger defined as a problem in terms of its causes in those editorial columns? and (3) Does the U.S. press discuss domestic hunger differently from global hunger in terms of causes? The study concluded that editorials present hunger in America as primarily caused by dysfunctions in a system that is only temporarily malfunctioning, along with the perception that the politics and economics of the Reagan administration have led to an increased presence of hunger in America. Editorials on world hunger, written almost exclusively about famine in Africa, described conflicting political and economic societal interests as causes along with moral factors, especially in those nations whose governments the United States opposes. Papers appeared limited in their awareness of the geographic dimensions of hunger, as well as in their expression of moral causes as they apply to hunger in America. (Two tables of data are included; three appendixes showing the survey questionnaire, distribution information, and the cause factors of hunger, categories and subcategories, are attached. Eleven references conclude the study.) (SR)