A First Look at Communication Theory (6th edition)

• Frederick Fico and Eric Freedman, “Setting the Agenda: Candidates and Commentators
in News Coverage of the Governor’s Race,” Journal and Mass Communication Quarterly
78 (Autumn 2001): 437-49.
• Guy Golan and Wayne Wanta, “Second-Level Agenda Setting in the New Hampshire
Primary: A Comparison of Coverage in Three Newspapers and Public Perceptions of
Candidates,” Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 78 (Summer 2001): 247-
59.
• Thomas P. Boyle, “Intermediate Agenda Setting in the 1996 Presidential Election,”
Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 78 (Spring 2001): 26-44.
• Marilyn Roberts, Ronald Anderson, and Maxwell McCombs, “1990 Texas Gubernatorial
Campaign: Influence of Issues and Images,” Mass Communication Review 21 (1994):
20-35.
• Richard M. Perloff, Political Communication: Politics, Press, and Public in America
(Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1998).
• Catherine Cassara demonstrates how politicians can influence the news media’s
agendas in “U.S. Newspaper Coverage of Human Rights in Latin America, 1975-1982:
Exploring President Carter’s Agenda-Building Influence,” Journalism and Mass
Communication Quarterly 75 (Autumn 1998): 478-86.
• William L. Benoit and Glenn J. Hanson argue that the questions asked by journalists in
political debates do not reflect the public interest in “Presidential Debate Questions and
the Public Agenda,” Communication Quarterly 49 (Spring 2001): 130-41.
• One of the most famous political statements about the agenda-setting function of the
media is Spiro Agnew’s “Television News Coverage,” published in Vital Speeches of the
Day (December 1, 1969), 98-101. Focusing on recent news coverage of Nixon’s
handling of the war in Indochina, the Vice President argued that the liberal media elite
unfairly influence both what Americans think about (agenda setting) and how they think
about it (framing). Somewhat ironically, Agnew’s successful attack on the press’s power
demonstrated a very different point—the ability of politicians and their spin doctors to
use media outlets to shape public opinion.
Issues of race and culture
• Susan Weill and Laura Castañeda, “‘Emphathetic Rejectionism’ and Inter-ethnic Agenda
Setting: Coverage of Latinos by the Black Press in the American South,” Journalism
Studies 5, 4 (2004): 537-51.
• Randy E. Miller and Wayne Wanta, “Race as a Variable in Agenda Setting,” Journalism
and Mass Communication Quarterly 73 (Winter 1996): 913-25.
• Wayne Wanta, Guy Golan, and Clseolhan, Lee, “Agenda Setting and International News:
Media Influence on Public Perceptions of Foreign Nations,” Journalism & Mass
Communication Quarterly 81, 2 (2004): 364-78.
• For further discussion of agenda setting in cross-cultural settings, see Hans-Bernd
Brosius and Gabriel Weimann, “Who Sets the Agenda? Agenda Setting as a Two-Step
Flow,” Communication Research 23 (October 1996): 561-80.
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