The International Journal of Press/Politics

This article focuses on politicians' efforts to shape the issue agenda outside Congress. Control of the issue agenda inside the institution is a central part of congressional politics. The majority party exerts extensive control over this agenda, and the minority party often works to subvert that control. However, legislators (particularly those in the minority party) may extend the battle over the congressional agenda beyond the internal operations of Congress by promoting their arguments in the news media. Shaping this broader issue agenda can help politicians pursue their policy and electoral goals. If legislators draw media attention to an issue, they may more successfully move related legislation through Congress. In addition, media attention may publicize legislators' claims and accomplishments to constituents. I find that coordinated support for a single message increases the likelihood that the message receives news coverage. This article illustrates how these media campaigns may be an underappreciated source of bias in our news coverage.

According to previous studies, African-American political leaders are often cast by the media as being both narrowly focused on matters of race and less influential than their white counterparts in the legislative process. This article explores the degree to which the press offices of African-American members of Congress perceive this to be the case and the degree to which African-American representatives contribute to this pattern of coverage. Interviews with congressional press secretaries reveal that they do find the media to be less fair in their treatment of African-American members and that they do believe African-American members are subject to pervasive stereotyping. Contrary to the media's depiction, however, the press secretaries, as well as an analysis of congressional Web sites, reveal that African-American members portray themselves and seek to be portrayed as having diverse interests and significant influence in Washington. Thus it appears that the media, rather than the members, are primarily responsible for the stereotyped coverage of African-Americans in Congress.

The relative costs and expertise associated with using the Internet, labeled technological and social access, have led to a concern about the rise of a “digital divide” between information haves and have-nots. To address whether and to what extent the Internet has become a medium of the masses and to identify the factors associated with social access to the Internet, I examine Internet use data from two statewide surveys, the Carolina Poll and the Indiana Poll, conducted during spring 1998. Multivariate analysis reveals that income, education, age, and family structure are important social determinants of on-line access and that Internet use is lowest among single mothers, members of lower socioeconomic groups, and older respondents. Although the online population is beginning to diversify, the Internet cannot yet claim a committed, nonelite mass audience. It is argued that the disparities in Internet use portend a looming information gap between those with access and those without.

Audience-participation programs are designed to provide interaction between politicians and voters. Through voters' questions, politicians gain a valuable gauge of public opinion. However, for this to happen, participants must be representative of the general public. Previous U.S. research suggests that this is not the case, but this failure may be caused by that country's commercialized media structure. Callers to the premiere British election phone-in program, Election Call, broadcast by the non-commercial BBC, are compared with members of the general public to determine whether its participants are socially and politically representative of the general public. The results are negative, at least in part because simply reflecting the public mood would conflict with the rules and norms of public-interest broadcasting.