If an issue is frequently reported in the news, but in a way that diminishes the urgency of the problem, it may cause a decline in salience. In this two-wave national panel study, it was discovered that interest in political stories on television news was positively associated with an increase in the salience of environmental problems as an issue (agenda-reinforcement). Exposure to campaign coverage in Bild, a high circulation national tabloid, was negatively associated with the salience of problems in the former East Germany (agenda deflation). Among other factors, this study finds that the tone of political coverage, as well as its frequency, is important.
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Schoenbach et al. (1992) studied this question.