Contemporary Public Opinion: Issues and the News

by Maxwell McCombs

Overview

This book discusses the public opinion process with a focus on the role that the news media play in shaping public opinion. Although heavily influenced by the agenda-setting perspective — the view that the news media define the important issues of the day and determine how these issues are presented — the authors neither support nor refute this claim. They present instead a variety of contemporary scholarship integrated into a coherent picture of public opinion for a general audience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780805811025
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	08/01/1991
Series:	Routledge Communication Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	122
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Contents: Preface. Part I: Introduction. Communication and Public Opinion. The Agenda-Setting Role of Mass Communication. Part II: Exploring the News. Practices, Values, and Traditions in Journalism. Framing the News. Part III: Reporting the News. Shaping the News Agenda. Exposure to News. Part IV: Imagining the News. Knowledge of Public Affairs. Forming Images and Opinions. Participation in Public Affairs. Part V: Creating Public Opinion. The Transfer of Interests.

Editorial Reviews

"...has surprising insight and clarity...highly recommended for all journalism, mass communication and public opinion collections."
—CHOICE

"...provides an insightful general orientation to modern theory and research into public opinion processes....The authors have packed a lot of useful information into this compact book....will serve very well as a text for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students in communication, political science and related fields....is at home on the scholar's bookshelf."
—Jornalism Quarterly

From the Publisher