ABSTRACT
The power of the media in influencing or, as some would vociferously argue, in determining our reality, is a subject of interest that has generated both serious scholarly academic inquiry and popular debate and discussion. Few would contest the premise that today’s journalists have an awesome responsibility, given their two-fold and sometimes competitive function of informing the public and being the first to do so in an era of instantaneous global communication. The mad cow crisis provides an intriguing context and case study for those interested in the agenda-setting phenomenon and its impact on a global public policy issue. In addition, it is an opportunity to examine the print media’s performance in providing meaning to a fast-breaking story with global consequences. What types of claims were made in the announcement stage of this story? What evidence was offered to support the claims that, pieced together, provided meaning for a public anxious to know and emerged as the mosaic of meaning in understanding the facts surrounding the mad cow issue?
