2
Literature Review
Media and Agenda Setting
Media research over the past fifty years suggests the media play a critical role in the way
voters think about political issues. Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw (1972) indicate that
media play an important role in defining the issues that citizens use to evaluate political
candidates. In their benchmark study, McCombs and Shaw established there is a direct link
between the media and public agendas. They called this phenomenon “agenda setting” (1972).
By comparing the responses to the MIP question of 100 undecided voters to the issues on the
media agenda at the time, a direct correlation was found (1972). Their research reinforced the
sentiment expressed by Maxwell Cohen that “the media may not be able to tell us what to think,
but they are stunningly successful in telling us what to think about” (1963).
Since McCombs and Shaw’s research, however, limited survey research exploring the
effects of media coverage on voters’ perceptions of men and women candidates was found
during an extensive literature review. The survey research that has been conducted includes a
few analyses of exit polls completed following elections in the United States and internationally.
Of this existing survey research, most has resulted from omnibus surveys, such as the American
National Election Study’s Senate Election Studies. Kropf and Boiney used that survey data to
study the results of media coverage on voters’ perceptions of candidates based on gender (2001).
Ronald Hedlund, Patricia Freeman, Keith Hamm, and Robert Stein utilized an omnibus survey of
frequent voters to determine that within the respondents to their survey, respondents offered less
support for women candidates for all political offices across the board thank they gave to male
candidates (1979). Bernadette Hayes and Toni Makkai used the results of the Australian Election
study conducted in 1990 to study the correlation between media use and political opinions of
Convention