Drug Peddlers: How Four Presidents Attempted to Influence Media and Public Concern on the Drug Issue

Autor: Thomas Johnson, Timothy Boudreau, Wayne Wanta
Rok vydání: 2004
Předmět:
Zdroj: Atlantic Journal of Communication. 12:177-199
ISSN: 1545-6889
1545-6870
DOI: 10.1207/s15456889ajc1204_1
Popis: This agenda-building study examined the presidencies of Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush to determine to what degree they influenced media and public concern for the drug issue. This study found a complex reciprocal relation between the president, the public, and the press, with results differing depending what president and newspapers were studied. However, when the data are examined across the various presidents rather than on individual leaders, the agenda-setting process is especially powerful with 8 of the 9 predicted paths proving significant. This study discovered that the president plays an equal or greater role than the media in the agenda-building process. The path between presidential statements and public approval was higher than the one between the media and the public. Although public approval polls drove both media coverage and presidential statements, the polls had a greater effect on the media. Finally, the path from presidential statements to subsequent m...
Databáze: OpenAIRE