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"The author presents a model of factors influencing the content of mass media-transmitted political communication. The basic idea behind the model is that the content of political communication is generally influenced by the political and the economic system, as well as by the actual situation in which the interaction between the mass media and political actors takes place. A set of hypotheses about journalistic behaviour is derived from the model. Content analysis data from three Danish general elections, as well as from the first direct elections for the European Parliament are confronted with these hypotheses. The empirical results show a recognizable pattern of interaction between politicians and journalists. For instance, journalists are more interested in what can be labelled as 'the here and now'. Also, conflicts as a news criterion are found more often in journalistic behaviour, than in the speeches of party representatives. But at the same time we can see a clear tendency among party representatives to take over some of these criteria of news value for their own presentation. The author argues that the mass media constitute a serious threat against a free and participatory democracy if they are specifically used for conflict presentation or for personalisation." (author's abstract)

"The author argues that after a decade of empirical studies on media agenda-setting, debate is centered not so much on whether there is media influence on public agendas (there seems to be considerable support for such an influence, at least at the group level), but rather on the contingent conditions that make for more or less of this influence. The evidence from several recent studies is reviewed in light of three emerging positions on agenda-setting: (1) The media are both necessary and sufficient in setting public agendas. (2) The media are necesaary, but not sufficient, in setting public agendas. (3) The media are neither necessary nor sufficient in setting public agendas. It is argued that there is much support from the recent research for the position that the media are often both necessary and sufficient for increasing the salience of just-emerging, largely unobtrusive issues for certain groups of the general public; some support for the position that the media are necessary, if not sufficient, in generating new issues; and least support for the position that the media are neither necessary nor sufficient in setting public agendas." (author's abstract)

"Brief sketch of research on mass media portrayal of recent election campaigns in the United States. Most of this research involves media coverage of the 1980 presidential election campaign. The focus is on the substance of information conveyed by mass media stories and on the research methods used to assess the substance of coverage. The general discussion is followed by an analysis of the substance of coverage of the 1980 presidential election by the New York Times. In the paper, 1980 findings are compared to findings from prior elections, particularly the 1976 election. All findings about mass media coverage of presidential campaigns are based on the author"s previous research and involve use of the same type of detailed coding methods. The validity of such content analysis findings, based on well-established research techniques and routines used by most other researchers, is then questioned. Do the usual content-analysis techniques yield adequate information about media content? Do they give a wholly accurate, partially accurate, or totally inaccurate picture? To answer these questions, the paper reports findings from a content analysis of New York Times stories of the 1980 election done through the technique of 'assertion' coding. The results of traditional content analysis and assertion content analysis are then compared. The findings clearly demonstrate the shortcomings of current content analysis methods. They also suggest the direction in which current research findings need to be modified to present a more accurate picture of mass media protrayal of election campaigns." (author's abstract)