Agenda-setting: who covers what

What the news covers shapes what people think about.

In 1963 the political scientist Bernard Cohen wrote that the press “may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about”.

In 1968 Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw tested the idea. They asked undecided voters in Chapel Hill, in the United States, which election issues mattered most, and compared their answers with the issues the voters’ newspapers, magazines and TV news gave most room to. The two lists closely matched. They called this the agenda-setting function of the media.

Every outlet chooses what to cover, how often, and how prominently. A story carried by many outlets for many days becomes part of the public conversation. One carried by few may never reach it.

Those choices have many causes: where reporters are based, what readers of a language or region want, what officials announce, what is cheap or safe to cover. A gap in coverage is a question, not proof of a motive.