| Chapter 2: | Review of Relevant Literature |
In their book Agenda-Setting (1996), communication researchers James Dearing and Everett Rogers deal with the multi-part theory of agenda-setting. In this particular instance they look at the importance of an issue on the mass media agenda. While the authors did not originate agenda-setting, they did popularize the concept. They identified three main components of the agenda-setting process, a) the media agenda, b) the public agenda, and c) the policy agenda. This book deals only with the media agenda in determining the way they portray the homeless.
Dearing and Rogers noted some generalizations about the agenda-setting process. They include that: a) during different time frames different media place varying degrees of importance on certain issues; b) the events occurring in the world (also known as real world indicators) are not terribly important in determining the media agenda; c) the White House, the New York Times and “trigger events” such as the recent tsunami disaster play an important role in seeing an issue placed on the media agenda; d) the results of scientific research do not play an important role in the agenda-setting process; e) the position of an issue on the media agenda helps to determine the issue’s relevance or otherwise on the public agenda (Dearing & Rogers, 1996, pp. 90–92).
Addressing why some issues are not resolved, Dearing and Rogers said, “Homelessness … seems to be an unsolvable problem in the United States … Some social problems persist despite human attempts to resolve them. These long-term problems are occasionally made into ‘issues’ through certain trigger devices and/or issue champions” (pp. 97–98).
The Media and the Homeless
A study by the Center for Media and Public Affairs (cmpa), which describes itself as “a non-partisan research and educational organization that conducts scientific studies of the news and entertainment media,” analyzed all television network evening news and news magazine stories from November 1986 through February 1989 (Center for Media and Public Affairs, 1990, p. 2).