This study combines both the agenda-building and the second-level agenda approaches. It proposes an expansion of agenda-building research by examining the interaction among the president, the media and the public for an event that was not considered an existing ‘real-world’ condition. Specifically, this study uses former President Bush’s five most prominent rationales for invading Iraq to explore the three-way reciprocal relationship among the media, the public and the president on attributes related to the pre-emptive strike on Iraq. The study found evidence of the information subsidies approach as Bush influenced media coverage of the Iraq War. The research also found more evidence of a linear model of agenda-building. The media and presidential agenda had only a limited influence on public concern about the war. Public concern influenced how much space the president devoted to the five issues on his Iraq War agenda and the press also had some limited influence on the issues stressed by the former president.
Alozie EC ( 2006) International diplomacy and the prelude to the 2003 invasion of Iraq: African news coverage and assessment. International Communication Gazette68(5-6): 449-472.
2.
Althaus SL and Largio D. ( 2004) When Osama became Saddam: Origins and consequences of the change in America’s public enemy #1. PS: Political Science and Politics37(4): 795-799.
3.
Bennett WL ( 1991) Toward a theory of press-state relations. Journal of Communication40(2): 103-125.
4.
Bennett WL, Lawrence RG and Livingston S. ( 2006) None dare call it torture: Indexing and the limits of press independence in the Abu Ghraib scandal. Journal of Communication56(3): 467-485.
5.
Berkowitz D. ( 1992) Who sets the media agenda? The ability of policymakers to determine news decisions. In: Kennamer JD (ed.) Public Opinion, the Press, and Public Policy. Westport, CT: Praeger, 81-102.
6.
Berkowitz D. and Adams D. ( 1990) Information subsidy and agenda setting in local television news. Journalism Quarterly67(4): 723-731.
7.
Bush GW ( 2002) State of the Union Address. 29 January. Available at: www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/01/20020129-11.html .
8.
Cameron GT, Sallot L. and Curtin P. ( 1997) Public relations and the production of news: A critical review and theoretical framework. Communication Yearbook20: 111-155.
9.
Canes-Wrone B. ( 2001) The president’s legislative influence from public appeals. American Journal of Political Science45(2): 313-329.
10.
Christie TB ( 2006) Framing rationale for the Iraq War: The interaction of public support with mass media and public policy agendas. The International Communication Gazette68(5-6): 519-532.
11.
Curtin P. ( 1999) Reevaluating public relations information subsidies: Marketing-driven journalism and agenda-building theory and practice. Journal of Public Relations Research11(1): 53-90.
12.
Dalton RJ, Beck PA, Huckfeld R. and Koetzle W. ( 1998) A test of media-centered agenda-setting: Newspaper content and public interests in a presidential election. Political Communication15(4): 463-481.
13.
Entman RM ( 2003) Cascading activation: Contesting the White House’s frame after 9/11. Political Communication20(4): 415-432.
14.
Entman RM ( 2004) Projections of Power: Framing News, Public Opinion, and US Foreign Policy. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
15.
Foyle DC ( 2004) Leading the public to war? The influence of American public opinion on the Bush administration’s decision to go to war in Iraq. The International Journal of Public Opinion Quarterly16(3): 269-294.
16.
Gandy O. ( 1982) Beyond Agenda-Setting: Information Subsidies and Public Policy. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
17.
Gans H. ( 1980) Deciding What’s News: A Study of CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, News-week and Time. New York: Vintage Books.
18.
Ghanem S. ( 1997) Filling in the tapestry: The second level of agendasetting . In: McCombs MD, Shaw DL and Weaver D (eds) Communication and Democracy: Exploring the Intellectual Frontiers in Agenda-Setting Theory. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 3-14.
19.
Golan G. and Wanta W. ( 2001) Second-level agenda-setting in the New Hampshire primary: A comparison of coverage in three newspapers and public perceptions of candidates . Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly78(2): 247-259.
20.
Gozenbach WJ ( 1992) A time-series analysis of the drug issue, 1985-1990: The press, the president, and public opinion. The International Journal of Public Opinion Research4(2): 126-147.
21.
Gozenbach WJ ( 1996) The Media, the President, and Public Opinion: A Longitudinal Analysis of the Drug Issue, 1984-1991. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
22.
Hallin D., Manoff RK and Weddle JK ( 1993) Sourcing patterns of national security reporters. Journalism Quarterly70(4): 753-766.
23.
Hutcheson J., Domke D., Billeaudeaux A. and Garland P. ( 2004) US national identity, political elites and a patriotic press following September 11. Political Communication21(1): 27-51.
24.
John SL, Domke D., Coe K. and Graham ES ( 2007) Going public, crisis after crisis: The Bush administration and the press from September 11 to Saddam. Rhetoric and Public Affairs10(2): 195-219.
25.
Johnson T. and Wanta W. ( 1996) Influence dealers: A path analysis model of agenda building during Richard Nixon’s war on drugs. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly73(1): 181-194.
26.
Johnson T., Wanta W. and Boudreau T. ( 2004) Drug peddlers: How four presidents attempted to influence media and public concern on the drug issue. Atlantic Journal of Communication12(4): 177-l99.
27.
Kellner D. ( 1992) The Persian Gulf TV War. Boulder, CO : Westview.
28.
Kim SH, Scheufele DA and Shanahan J. ( 2002) Think about it this way: Attribute agenda-setting function of the press and the public’s evaluation of a local issue. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly79(1): 7-25.
29.
Kull S., Ramsay C. and Lewis E. ( 2003) Misperceptions, the Media, and the Iraq War. Political Science Quarterly118(4): 569-598.
30.
Lang GE and Lang K. ( 1983) The Battle for Public Opinion: The President, the Press and the Polls during Watergate. New York: Columbia University Press.
31.
Largio DM ( 2004) Uncovering the Rationales for the War on Iraq. Available at: www.pol.uiuc.edu/news/largio.htm.
32.
McCombs M. ( 1997) New frontiers in agenda setting: Agendas of attributes and frames. Mass Communication Review24(1-2): 32-52.
33.
McCombs ME and Ghanem S. ( 2001) The convergence of agenda-setting and framing. In: Reese SD Jr, Gandy O and Grant AE (eds) Framing Public Life: Perspectives on Media and our Understanding of the Social World. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum , 67-82.
34.
McCombs M. and Shaw D. ( 1972) The agenda-setting function of mass media. Public Opinion Quarterly36(2): 176-187.
35.
Melkote SR(2009) News framing during a time of impending war: An examination of coverage in The New York Times Prior to the2003Iraq War. The International Communication Gazette71(7): 547-559.
36.
Newhagen JE ( 1994) The relationship between censorship and the emotional and critical tone of news coverage of the Persian Gulf War. Journalism Quarterly71(1): 32-42.
37.
Paletz DL and Entman RM ( 1981) Media Power Politics. New York: The Free Press.
38.
Park R. ( 1966) News as a form of knowledge: A chapter in the sociology of knowledge. In: Steinberg CE (eds) Mass Media and Communication. New York: Hastings House, 133-134.
39.
Pyle E. ( 1979) Here is Your War. Manchester, MA: Ayer.
40.
Salwen M. ( 1988) Effect of accumulation of coverage on issues salience in agenda setting. Journalism Quarterly65(3): 100-106.
41.
Tedesco JC ( 2001) Issue and strategy agenda-setting in the 2000 presidential primaries. American Behavioral Scientist44(12): 2048-2067.
42.
Turk JV ( 1985) Information subsidies and influence. Public Relations Review11(3): 23-29.
43.
Tyndall A. ( 2003) Tyndall Report. Available at: www.tyndallreport.com/archive03.php3.
44.
Wanta W. ( 1991) Presidential approval ratings as a variable in the agenda-building process. Journalism Quarterly68(4): 672-679.
45.
Wanta W. and Foote J. ( 1994) The president-news media relationship: A time series analysis of agenda setting. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media38(4): 437-448.
46.
Yagade A. and Dozier DM ( 1990) The media agenda-setting effect of concrete versus abstract issues. Journalism Quarterly67(1): 3-10.
47.
Zhu J.-H, Watts JH, Snyder LB, Yan J. and Jiang Y. ( 1993) Public issue priority formation: Media agenda-setting and social interaction. Journal of Communication43(1): 8-29.
48.
Zucker HG ( 1978) The variable nature of news media influence. In: Ruben BD (ed.) Communication Yearbook2. Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 235-246.
