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Research and theory on the media treatment and popularization of important social issues have many long traditions. The largest of these, agenda setting, has made its way over the years into newsrooms and think-tank analyses of public policy debates. And when the general public thinks about media effects, it almost always thinks o f agenda setting. Unfortunately, these popular conceptions often characterize agenda setting as something of an iron law rather than the subtle, highly contingent effect that years of careful research has shown it to be.During its first 25 years, the agenda-setting literature has grown to include more than 200 separate articles and more than a dozen books dealing specifically with this topic (Rogers, Dearing, & Bregman, 1993). The heuristic value of the agenda-setting perspective is undeniable, but heuristic value is not the only standard by which we judge the accomplishments of scientists. Agenda setting's key proponents have worked hard to expand its boundaries and scope, struggling valiantly to overcome the underspecified and constrained stimulus-response approach to media effects contained in agenda setting's original conceptualization. Researchers have amassed a large hody of empirical generalizations, but they have had trouble developing the ties to clear theories of society, news work, and human psychology that would allow the perspective to become truly useful as a theory accounting for issue evolution in society. Fortunately, scholars have made some progress on these fronts, albeit sometimes from outside of the field, and sometimes by shaking u p our normal scientific approach. What follows is an attempt to describe in broad terms the state of research in this area, to define the key problems, and to suggest a variety o f alternative perspectives that, if given the chance, will enrich the study of this topic domain.

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The period between August 1990 and early November 1992 was characterized by two “issue regimes,” the Gulf War and an economic recession. Analysis of aggregate media content and opinion poll data shows that President George Bush's job approval ratings were closely tied to the changes in the salience of these two issues. Guided by priming theory, hypotheses were formulated and tested concerning media effects on voters' evaluations of President Bush. Results show that the pattern of forming Bush's approval ratings is related to two different issue regimes. The total dominance of the public arena by one issue during an issue regime sets the foundation of Bush's overall approval ratings. However, direct media priming effects are found limited. Implications of these results are discussed.

This study focused on the roles that community integration and community-boundedness (the relevance of a topic for a specific community) play on knowledge gaps. Given the extensive evidence linking media exposure with community ties, the authors hypothesized that ties with the local community could potentially mitigate local public affairs knowledge gaps. They also examined if the relevance of a topic to a subgroup would lead to lower knowledge gaps. A survey of 661 residents of Franklin County, Ohio, showed that whereas community ties were unrelated to knowledge, community-boundedness could be an important determinant of knowledge gaps on local public affairs. Additional analysis of the data also suggests that length of association with the community could be a potentially important contingent condition in the amelioration of knowledge gaps. The authors argue that their findings extend traditional findings of knowledge gaps that apply to geographically defined communities to studying “communities without propinquity.”

Researchers have shown that news discourse contains images, episodes, themes, and vocabulary that comprise a negative portrayal of Blacks. But evidence linking news media content to Whites' racial policy opinions has lacked clear specification of the opinion formation process and mechanisms of news media influences on such process. This study mimics Whites' reasoning process via a causal model involving ideological orientations, affect toward Blacks, assessment of situations of racial inequality, and causal attributions of the inequality. The characteristics of this reasoning process may be affected by the news media in several ways. By analyzing the National Election Study (NES) 1990 Post-Election Survey data, this study examines how Whites' reliance on ideological principles or affect in forming their opinions is contingent on news media exposure. The data show that increased information-oriented media use enhances the role of ideological orientation and, possibly, causal attributions in Whites' racial policy reasoning.

Through a social identity theoretical lens, this study examines how nurses' identification with their working small group, unit, or floor, nursing role (e.g., staff ER nurse, nurse practitioner), and nursing profession relate to nurses' interaction involvement, willingness to confront conflict, feelings of learned helplessness, and tenure (employment turnover) intentions. A cross-sectional survey (N = 466) was conducted at a large, quaternary care hospital system. Structural equation modeling uncovered direct and indirect effects between the five primary variables. Findings demonstrate direct relationships between nurse identity (as a latent variable) and interaction involvement, willingness to confront conflict, and tenure intentions. Feelings of learned helplessness are attenuated by increased nurse identity through interaction involvement and willingness to confront conflict. In addition, willingness to confront conflict and learned helplessness mediate the relationship between interaction involvement and nurses' tenure intentions. Theoretical extensions include indirect links between nurse identity and learned helplessness via interaction involvement and willingness to confront conflict. Implications for interpersonal communication theory development, health communication, and the nursing profession are discussed.

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