ABSTRACT
AT a time when scholars in political science, journalism, mass communication, and communication studies are all bemoaning a lack of theoretic and methodological progress in the agenda-setting research domain (Eyal, 1981; Iyengar, 1988; Iyengar & Kinder, 1987; Rogers, 1986; Rogers & Dearing, 1988; Swanson, 1988), Weiss’s chapter offers a breath of fresh air. Drawing upon Swanson’s (1988) recent conclusion that “if we wish to understand fully how the media influence the public’s views or the actions of policymakers, then we must go beyond agendas and consider the content of persons’ opinions and of news stories” (p. 613; emphasis added), Weiss has proposed an elaborate and detailed model for investigating the content of news stories in national and local newspapers. Weiss labels his approach argumentation analysis, and focuses upon the arguments (pro and con) that journalists utilize in constructing news stories for consumers. Utilizing this argumentation approach, Weiss’s research has produced some interesting, if not disturbing, conclusions. In brief, his results reveal (a) that journalists focus the public discussion on a relatively limited number of arguments, and (b) that writers are decidedly polarized in the types of arguments they present.
