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Using a set of seven questions developed to measure personal motivations for concern about a specific problem, data are examined from two Texas Polls conducted in 1992 (N = 1,007 respondents [Rs]), when the economy dominated the public agenda, & 1996 (N = 1,001 Rs), when crime & the economy shared the public agenda. The results indicate a stable pattern of motivation. There is a high degree of similarity in the relative salience in motives overall, in motives linked to economic issues in both years, & in motives for three other issues examined individually in 1996. 4 Tables, 33 References. Adapted from the source document.

Examines the influence of the news media over which issues are on the public agenda through their selection and display of news stories, and ways in which the media can build community among demographic subgroups; US.

Cover; Dedication; Title page; Copyright page; Boxes; Preface; 1: Influencing Public Opinion; Our pictures of the world; Contemporary empirical evidence; The accumulated evidence; Cause and effect; A new communication landscape; Summing up; 2: Reality and the News; Idiosyncratic pictures; Perspectives on agenda-setting effects; Content versus exposure; Agenda-setting in past centuries; Summing up; 3: The Pictures in our Heads; Pictures of political candidates; Candidate images in national elections; Candidate images in local elections; Media influence on candidate images; Attributes of issues

This essay by a pioneer scholar in the field broadly summarizes the collective body of findings from hundreds of agenda-setting studies of the past 20 years and suggests fruitful research lines for the future. McCombs finds that, as with pealing a sweet onion, there are layers of research, each with its distinct tantalizing aroma of conclusions. Journalism practitioners, scholars, students and scholars from political science and other disciplines have contributed many perspectives within the context of a variety of data-gathering techniques and subjects. Broadly speaking, he finds that scholars tend to be those who carefully survey and mark ground that has already been discovered but only loosely explored and those who are tempted to move beyond the boundaries of the known. As the circle of research activity enlarges, we know much. But there is more that we do not know, and that is more exciting.