Media accounts typically employ two types of information: (a) general statements about the range or importance of a problem (base-rate information), and (b) illustrative individual cases (exemplars) that are less valid but more vivid. A review of the psychological literature on judgments leads to the general hypothesis that the perception of a problem is influenced primarily by the quality and distribution of exemplars. In a series of five experiments, the researchers varied the number and quality of exemplars and their consistency with the base-rate information for several journalistic stories. The results indicate that base-rate information had almost no impact whereas exemplars had a strong effect on the perceived distribution of public opinion about story problems. Exemplars also had a moderate impact on subjects' personal opinions about the problem. Implications for communication research and journalistic practice are discussed.

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We conducted an online experiment to study people's perception of automated computer-written news. Using a 2 × 2 × 2 design, we varied the article topic (sports, finance; within-subjects) and both the articles' actual and declared source (humanwritten, computer-written; between-subjects). Nine hundred eighty-six subjects rated two articles on credibility, readability, and journalistic expertise. Varying the declared source had small but consistent effects: subjects rated articles declared as human written always more favorably, regardless of the actual source. Varying the actual source had larger effects: subjects rated computer-written articles as more credible and higher in journalistic expertise but less readable. Across topics, subjects' perceptions did not differ. The results provide conservative estimates for the favorability of computerwritten news, which will further increase over time and endorse prior calls for establishing ethics of computer-written news.

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The present study investigates static and dynamic approaches to agendasetting research by means of cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. The data bases used are weekly surveys on problem awareness of the public regarding 16 issues and a content analysis of the main German television news shows in 1986. Although static analysis of the data reveals nearly no relationship between media coverage and problem awareness, dynamic analysis demonstrates that media coverage caused problem awareness of four prominent issues in 1986 (energy supply, defense, environmental protection, and European politics). Problem awareness, on the other hand, caused media coverage on three issues (pensions, public debt, and public security). Time lags ranked between 1 and 3 weeks. The direction of influence seems to be dependent on the kind of issue and the investigated time interval. In addition, there are significant differences in the type of effects. Although the public generally reacted to media coverage with corresponding increases and declines of problem awareness, the media sometimes reacted to problem awareness by counterbalancing the trend of public opinion.

Mediated conflicts are controversies between at least two parties who exchange information and arguments indirectly by the mass media. The discourse in mediated conflicts is influenced by its public character. By forwarding information and arguments to the media, conflict parties attempt to gain support from their constituencies and persuade their opponents. This raises the question of the role the media plays in selecting news about such conflicts. Events which support the position of either one of the protagonists in a conflict are called instrumental. The publication of information on these events is called instrumental actualization. It may be regarded as one of the major goals of the conflicting parties and one important activity of journalists. The relevance of instrumental actualization in news selection is analysed with a survey of 213 print and broadcast journalists, and a content analysis of their news reporting about the dispute concerning the 35-hour working week. The results indicate that instrumental actualization plays a significant role in mediated conflicts.

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