Abstract
Drawing on priming and agenda-setting theories, this study explored the influence of news coverage of the Monica Lewinsky scandal on public opinion of President Bill Clinton. Unlike previous research in this area, this study examined such relations longitudinally using various time lags and probed multiple dimensions of public opinion, particularly job approval and perceived favorability. Findings suggested that media coverage was correlated with changes in public opinion of the president. Specifically, a positive relation was observed between media coverage and perceived favorability, and a negative relation was observed between media coverage and job approval. As predicted, the relation was stronger with favorability than job approval. When examined in a multivariate context, media influence on perceived favorability was shown to be robust even when controlling for external factors (time and economic indicators), but was not robust with respect to job approval.
Published Version
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