Shaping and Cutting the Media Agenda

Abstract

This monograph examines television reporters’ perceptions of how sources both within and outside the media attempt to influence news content and coverage decisions and to what degree they are successful. Using structural equation modeling and original data from a national web survey of television reporters, this research explores how market size, extramedia, organizational, and within-media forces influence television news content from a comprehensive perspective. The study also attempts to advance theory with the development and expansion of agenda cutting, and by updating the literature for agenda building and frame building as well as the social control of the newsroom.