Focusing Event Characteristics and Issue Accompaniment: The Case of Domestic Terrorism

Abstract

This paper explores the impact of domestic terrorism on the public agenda. Specifically, it examines the extent to which the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing required assistance, or "accompaniment," to capture the attention of lawmakers. Accompaniment was defined in terms of governmental and popular concerns for an issue prior to a focusing event. Content analyses of The Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, the New York Times Index, the Washington Post Index, and Congressional Quarterly, as measures of prior congressional, presidential, and public interest, suggested that domestic terrorism did not require accompaniment to achieve agenda status. Instead, unique focusing event characteristics—the intendedly violent, sudden, novel, and criminal nature of the explosion—were responsible.