Print media impact on state legislative policy agendas

Using a survey of Louisiana’s State Legislature, this study examined the role media have in developing state legislators’ policy agendas by exploring the function of news media in the public policy process. The study also tested whether there was a correlation between media use, years of legislative service, and education level. This thesis was also able to establish a correlation between media use and gender, with results suggesting that female state legislators rely on newspapers more than their male counterparts. The results suggest that legislators do seek out issues in newspapers that affect the communities and constituents they serve and that newspapers do prompt their taking legislative action. As much as they use media, however, legislators do not have a particularly high regard for it. Legislators responded that newspapers favor one side in their reporting of the news and were split evenly when asked whether they felt newspapers were accurate in their reporting. Regardless of these perceptions, legislators continue to use newspapers to generate their legislative agendas