Public opinion, media and construction of the political agenda

Abstract

The current article tries to be an approach to the theoretical and methodological perspectives that answer the problematic on the policy agenda building in relation to the influence that both, mass-media and public opinion, have on the political decisions of the government. In this respect, the author recovers the classical concept ions of the structure of the agenda and penetrates into the three dominant traditions of research in the matter: the public agenda-setting, the policy agenda-building, and the media agenda-set ting. Finally the complex process of the policy agenda-building, in which mass media and civil opinion intervene, has an important weight in the comprehension and stability in modern democracy.