ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates forms of news media influence on political issue agendas and decision-making. It begins with a critical evaluation of media agenda-setting research – the more commonly adopted paradigm for exploring this question in political communication. It then argues instead for a greater adoption of methods and perspectives developed in media sociology. These typically draw on a mix of sociology, psychology and ethnography, to explore how media audiences use, and relate to, media in their everyday cognitive and behavioural processes. In this case the audience is made up of Members of Parliament at Westminster. The question is: how do MPs use and relate to journalists and political news in their efforts to identify political agendas and make substantive decisions?
