| Abstract: | The agenda-setting impact of international news was examinedby comparing the coverage of 15 categories of internationalnews in four news media (the New York Times, ABC, CBS, and NBC)with the level of public concern with international problemsas recorded by all 41 Gallup organization's most important problempolls conducted from 1975 to 1990. The findings suggest thatthe way in which international news is framed in news reportsmay determine the magnitude of salience cues. Four categoriesof news coverage demonstrated the strongest agenda-setting influence:international conflicts involving the United States; terrorisminvolving the U.S.; crime/drugs; and military/nuclear arms.Generally, the results support previous findings which concludedthat stories with high degrees of conflict and stories withconcrete presentations (by including Americans in the stories)have the strongest agenda-setting impact. In addition, two newscategories—international trade not involving the UnitedStates, and politics not involving the United States—correlatednegatively with public concern for two of the news media. Thisresult suggests that press coverage, besides increasing publicconcern with certain issues, can also decrease concern. Certaincategories of news, such as stories dealing with internationalpolitics and trade, can give individuals cues that the internationalarena is functioning quite smoothly. These types of internationalnews stories show individuals that international problems arenot really serious problems at all. |
