THE AGENDA-SETTING EFFECTS OF INTERNATIONAL NEWS COVERAGE - AN EXAMINATION OF DIFFERING NEWS FRAMES

The agenda-setting impact of international news was examined by comparing the coverage of I5 categories of international news in four news media (the New York Times, ABC, CBS, and NBC) with the level of public concern with international problems as recorded by all 4I Gallup organization's most important problem polls conducted from I975 to I99o. The findings suggest that the way in which international news is framed in news reports may determine the magnitude of salience cues. Four categories of news coverage demonstrated the strongest agenda-setting influence: international conflicts involving the United States; terrorism involving the U.S.; crime/drugs; and military/nuclear arms. Generally, the results support previous findings which concluded that stories with high degrees of conflict and stories with concrete presentations (by including Americans in the stories) have the strongest agenda-setting impact. In addition, two news categories-international trade not involving the United States, and politics not involving the United States-correlated negatively with public concern for two of the news media. This result suggests that press coverage, besides increasing public concern with certain issues, can also decrease concern. Certain categories of news, such as stories dealing with international politics and trade, can give individuals cues that the international arena is functioning quite smoothly. These types of international news stories show individuals that international problems are not really serious problems at all.