The States and Higher Education Legislative Views on the Governance of Public Colleges and Universities: Enhancing the Public Interest

The mass media's role in shaping public policy remains the focus of intensive research among political science and communication scholars. Yet virtually nothing is known about media coverage of state higher education policy making. Using mass communication theory, this study analyzes press coverage of an appropriations conflict between two nationally prominent universities. Its purpose was to determine whether newspapers give preferential treatment to their local universities, ultimately producing bias in their coverage of higher education.