ABSTRACT
Chapter 11 introduced the concept of agenda-setting and discussed the media's impact on the public agenda. This chapter broadens the focus to the political system and examines the complex interplay among the press, government, and public. Maxwell McCombs cut to the heart of the issue in one of his many articles on agenda-setting. McCombs noted that:
The news is not cut from whole cloth. The ingredients for the day's news are largely supplied by individuals and events quite independent of the press. And the subsequent impact of news reports rests for the most part in the hands of the political system, which must take the initiative if public concern, collective or individual, is to have major consequences. Agenda-setting, the creation of awareness and the arousal of public concern, is but one aspect of the larger process of agenda-building, a collective process in which media, government, and the public reciprocally influence each other. 1
