Power and influence : news media's 'agenda setting' effect on elite policy
Authors
O'Brien, Ciaran
Issue Date
2007
Degree
BA (Hons) Arts
Publisher
Dublin Business School
Rights holder
Rights
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Abstract
The purpose of this theoretical discussion is to assess the claim that the news media has the ability to elicit change in elite policy-makers through its ability to place an issue within the public agenda, through use of news stories that emphasis the plight of the victims of ongoing humanitarian crises. It aims specifically to analyse the news coverage in the months before, during and after the 13th International AIDS Conference in Durban,9th to 14th July 2000 and the UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS), 25th to 27th June 2001 , in The New York Times, to see if there was a direct correspondence between the salience of the issues that appeared in the news agenda in the coverage of the Conference and the Special Sessions and the issues that appeared in the agendas of elite policy-makers.