Setting the news story agenda: Candidates and commentators in news coverage of a governor's race

Journalism and Mass Communication Quaterly

Volumn 78, Issue 3, 2001, Pages 437-449

  Fico, Frederick ^a   Freedman, Eric ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0035649317     PISSN: 10776990     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/107769900107800303     Document Type: Article

References (25)

1. J. W. Dearing and E.M. Rogers, Agenda Setting (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1996). See pages 109 to 128 for citations to approximately 350 agenda-setting studies.
2. Mark Miller, Julie L. Andsager, and Bonnie P. Riechert, "Framing the Candidates in Presidential Primaries: Issues and Images in Press Releases and News Coverage," Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 75 (summer 1998): 312-24.
3. David Domkie, David P. Fan, Michael Fibison, Dhavan V. Shah, Steven S. Smith, and Mark D. Watts, "News Media, Candidates and Issues, and Public Opinion in the 1996 Presidential Campaign," Journalism Quarterly 74 (winter 1997): 718-37.
4. Thomas Patterson, The Mass Media Election (New York: Praeger, 1980).
5. Thomas J. Johnson, "Filling Out the Racing Form," Journalism Quarterly 70 (summer 1993): 300-310; Thomas J. Johnson, "The Seven Dwarfs and Other Tales: How the Networks and Selected Newspapers Covered the 1988 Democratic Primaries," Journalism Quarterly 70 (summer 1993): 311-20.
6. Thomas J. Johnson, "Filling Out the Racing Form," Journalism Quarterly 70 (summer 1993): 300-310; Thomas J. Johnson, "The Seven Dwarfs and Other Tales: How the Networks and Selected Newspapers Covered the 1988 Democratic Primaries," Journalism Quarterly 70 (summer 1993): 311-20.
7. Mark Miller and Bryan Denham, "Horserace, Issue Coverage in Prestige Newspapers During 1998, 1992 Elections," Newspaper Research Journal 15 (fall 1994): 20-28.
8. Frederick Fico and William Cote, "Fairness and Balance in Election Reporting: The 1994 governor's race in Michigan," Newspaper Research Journal 18 (summer/fall 1997): 51-63.
9. Shirley A. Serini, Angela A. Powers, and Susan Johnson, "Of Horse Race and Policy Issues: A Study of Gender in Coverage of a Gubernatorial Election by Two Major Metropolitan Newspapers," Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 75 (spring 1998): 194-204.
10. Janet E. Steele, "Experts and the Operational Bias of Television News: The Case of the Persian Gulf War," Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 72 (winter 1995): 799-812.
11. Lawrence Soley, "Pundits in Print," Newspaper Research Journal 15 (spring 1994): 65-75.
12. Angela Powers and Frederick Fico, "Influences on Reporters' Use of Sources at High Circulation U.S. Newspapers," Newspaper Research Journal 15 (fall 1994): 87-97.
13. Cecilie Gaziano, "How Credible is the Credibility Crisis?" Journalism Quarterly (summer 1988):267-78; Cecilie Gaziano and Kristin McGrath, "Measuring the Concept of Credibility," Journalism Quarterly (autumn 1986): 451-62; "Project will study fairness in media," The Freedom Forum News, 24 February 1997, 1; Christine D. Urban, "Why Newspaper Credibility Has Been Dropping: A Report for the American Society of Newspaper Editors," Urban & Associates, Inc. December 1998.
14. Cecilie Gaziano, "How Credible is the Credibility Crisis?" Journalism Quarterly (summer 1988):267-78; Cecilie Gaziano and Kristin McGrath, "Measuring the Concept of Credibility," Journalism Quarterly (autumn 1986): 451-62; "Project will study fairness in media," The Freedom Forum News, 24 February 1997, 1; Christine D. Urban, "Why Newspaper Credibility Has Been Dropping: A Report for the American Society of Newspaper Editors," Urban & Associates, Inc. December 1998.
15. Cecilie Gaziano, "How Credible is the Credibility Crisis?" Journalism Quarterly (summer 1988):267-78; Cecilie Gaziano and Kristin McGrath, "Measuring the Concept of Credibility," Journalism Quarterly (autumn 1986): 451-62; "Project will study fairness in media," The Freedom Forum News, 24 February 1997, 1; Christine D. Urban, "Why Newspaper Credibility Has Been Dropping: A Report for the American Society of Newspaper Editors," Urban & Associates, Inc. December 1998.
16. Cecilie Gaziano, "How Credible is the Credibility Crisis?" Journalism Quarterly (summer 1988):267-78; Cecilie Gaziano and Kristin McGrath, "Measuring the Concept of Credibility," Journalism Quarterly (autumn 1986): 451-62; "Project will study fairness in media," The Freedom Forum News, 24 February 1997, 1; Christine D. Urban, "Why Newspaper Credibility Has Been Dropping: A Report for the American Society of Newspaper Editors," Urban & Associates, Inc. December 1998.
17. Wilbur Schramm, "Measuring Another Dimension of Newspaper Readership," Journalism Quarterly 24 (December 1947): 293-306.
18. Newspaper Association of America, "Media Usage Study, 2000": (On-line), available: www.naa.org.
19. Fred Fedler, John R. Bender, Lucinda Davenport, and Michael Drager, Reporting for the Media, 7th ed. (Fort Worth: Harcourt, 2001), 113.
20. Frederick Fico, "A Comparison of Legislative Sources in Newspaper and Wire Service Stories," Newspaper Research Journal 5 (spring 1984): 35-44; Frederick Fico, "The Replication of Findings on Newspaper and Wire Service Source Use in Two Statehouses," Newspaper Research Journal 7 (winter 1985): 45-51.
21. Frederick Fico, "A Comparison of Legislative Sources in Newspaper and Wire Service Stories," Newspaper Research Journal 5 (spring 1984): 35-44; Frederick Fico, "The Replication of Findings on Newspaper and Wire Service Source Use in Two Statehouses," Newspaper Research Journal 7 (winter 1985): 45-51.
22. Frederick Fico, "Influence of Perceived Editorial Concern and Role Self-Concept on Source Reliance of Reporters in Two Statehouses," Journalism Quarterly 63 (summer 1986): 322-30.
23. Newspapers analyzed were the Saginaw News, the Macomb Daily, the Kalamazoo Gazette, the Lansing State Journal, the Oakland Press, the Flint Journal, the Grand Rapids Press, the Detroit News, and the Detroit Free Press. At the time of this research, these nine dailies accounted for about 70 percent of the total daily newspaper circulation in Michigan, and were thus the most widely influential dailies in the state.
24. Any interest group that endorsed a candidate was considered a partisan source, as were spokespersons on behalf of that group. If it was unclear whether or not an interest group had formally endorsed one of the candidates, the group was called to ascertain that information. Spokespersons from interest groups that did not endorse gubernatorial candidates were considered to be issue experts.
25. Assertions were quoted or paraphrased statements explicitly linked to sources by verbs of attribution indicating speaking such as "said," "stated," "promised," "argued," etc. Verbs denoting state of mind of sources (e.g., "feels," "thinks," "believes," etc.) were also considered to signal assertions when it was clear that such verbs were used as synonyms for verbs such as "said." The context of the sentence and paragraph was used to resolve rare instances of ambiguity.