Colby D C, Cook T E
J Health Polit Policy Law. 1991 Summer;16(2):215-49. doi: 10.1215/03616878-16-2-215.
We examine why the exponential growth of AIDS cases or the wide-spread professional perception of a health crisis did not move the epidemic more quickly onto the agenda of public problems. One possible explanation focuses on how the national news media's construction of AIDS shaped the meaning of the epidemic for mass and elite audiences. An examination of nightly news coverage by the three major networks from 1982 to 1989 reveals considerable variability and volatility in their coverage. Topic-driven saturation coverage occurred only during three short periods in 1983, 1985, and 1987, when the epidemic seemed likely to affect the "general population". Only at such moments did public opinion shift and discussion and debate in government begin. Otherwise, the typical AIDS story tended less to sensationalize than to reassure, largely because journalists depended upon government officials and high-ranking doctors to present them with evidence of news. Such sources had interests either in avoiding coverage or in pointing toward breakthroughs; more critical sources, especially within the gay movement, had far less access to the news. In concluding, we considered the prospects and pitfalls of the news media's power to shape the public agenda.
我们探究了为何艾滋病病例的指数级增长或广泛存在的对健康危机的专业认知，未能使这一流行病更快地进入公共问题议程。一种可能的解释聚焦于国家新闻媒体对艾滋病的建构如何塑造了这一流行病对于大众和精英受众的意义。对1982年至1989年三大电视网晚间新闻报道的考察揭示了其报道中存在相当大的变异性和波动性。主题驱动的饱和式报道仅在1983年、1985年和1987年的三个短时期内出现，当时这一流行病似乎有可能影响“普通人群”。只有在这样的时刻，公众舆论才会转变，政府内部的讨论和辩论才会开始。否则，典型的艾滋病报道往往不那么耸人听闻，而是起到安抚作用，这主要是因为记者依赖政府官员和高级医生为他们提供新闻证据。这些消息来源要么有避免报道的利益诉求，要么倾向于指出突破；更具批判性的消息来源，尤其是同性恋运动内部的，获得新闻的机会要少得多。在结论部分，我们思考了新闻媒体塑造公共议程的权力所带来的前景和隐患。
