ABSTRACT
After a survey of conception, method, and selected results of an approach to the study of the contents of media agenda-setting, this chapter develops an approach termed argumentation analysis. This approach has been used in two studies on media contents concerning the tendencies with which the daily press covered and discussed the conflict of the coexistence of the public and commercial broadcasting systems in Germany. Argumentation analysis is a contribution to the further development of agenda-setting research because it measures important aspects of the stereotyping of issue-specific conflicts by journalists and the news media. With this approach, the hypothesis that the conflict structure of media issue coverage mediates the agenda-setting effect can be tested.
