Reviewing the historical development of media agenda-setting theory suggests that topics emphasized by the mass news media become the topics people think are most important. The vast majority of agenda-setting studies, however, rely on aggregate measures of media and public agendas, and produce very little support for the original theory as there…

This study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that the media emphasis of issues serves to set the agenda of public awareness of those issues. Data were obtained from telephone interviews during the 1976 United States Presidential campaign from 658 voters in Pennsylvania and California. The issues of unemployment, inflation, and crime were…