The agenda-setting relationship between the news media and public opinion: the case of global warming 1988-1992

This thesis is an investigation of the relationship between the mass media and public opinion. For just over twenty years, mass communication researchers have been studying this relationship under the rubric of agenda-setting. This thesis will embrace that approach. Agenda-setting is a term applied somewhat loosely to a class of research which seeks to unveil relationships between what the mass media portray as important and what the public considers to be important. This line of inquiry grew out of social scientists\u27 interest in the effects of the mass media on society. The central question in all agenda-setting studies is: Do the mass media influence what we think about, and what we consider to be important