ABSTRACT
In contrast to anecdotal approaches to the history of social legislation, the approach emphasizes structure and quantification. The use of techniques such as content analysis and an analytical framework for understanding human values helps make the process more explicit and reduces editorial bias. The media directly effects legislation by providing information to legislators and covering congressional events. Other effects come through the information it provides to advocates and concerned professionals, as well as the coverage it gives both of these groups. The dominant inputs to the process by which legislation is enacted are from the participating public, concerned professionals, advocates, and the media, through which the concerns of the "public at large" diffusely work. The chapter examines congressional hearing records on air quality, aviation safety, consumer product safety, occupational health and safety, and pesticides control legislation by content analysis. The movement toward federal legislation was in part due to the increasing knowledge of how automobile emissions damage health.
