title: News media framing sets public opinion that drugs is the country's most important problem.
abstract: Responses by the public to the question of whether drugs was the United States' most important problem ranged from under 5% to over 60% during the 9 years from 1985 to 1994. Time series analysis showed that changes in this opinion could be explained by the press describing drugs as a crisis. Other types of drug discussion contributed negligibly. In the reverse direction, public opinion about drugs was a weak but significant contributor to press coverage.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics and Cell Biology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul 55108. dfan@simvax.labmed.umn.edu
authors.forename: D P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Fan
mesh_terms: D003625:Data Collection; D006801:Humans; D008402:Mass Media; D011897:Random Allocation; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders; D014481:United States