What is the major social problem in the news today? Who made it so important? Social issues that are widely recognized on the media agenda often demand attention on the public agenda, and in turn move quickly up the policy agenda, creating policy changes.

Based on research of contemporary social issues that have hit the headlines - including the war on drugs, drink-driving, the Exxon Valdez oil spillage, AIDS and the Ethiopian famine - this book provides important theoretical and practical insights into the agenda-setting process and its role in effecting social change.

What is the major social problem in the news today? Who made it so important? Based on research of contemporary social issues that have hit the headlines, this book provides important theoretical and practical insights into the agenda-setting process and its role in effecting social change.

Internationally respected contributors describe in this volume their experiences of balancing the tension between teaching and research. Among the themes that emerge are: teachers as models for each other and for their students; individualism versus collectivism in the institution and the classroom; integrating individual research interests into the classroom; and finding one's voice. The book suggests that if scholars are to be teachers, their ability to integrate teaching and research is fundamental to their wellbeing over the course of their career, and is probably an indication of their...

Public opinion - is it a simple aggregation of individual views, or is it some kind of collective-level, emergent product of debate? What is the role of public opinion in popular government? How do the mass media shape public opinion or link it with governmental decision-making? This book explores such questions by tracing the historical development and application of the concept of public opinion.

Does pornography have harmful effects on individuals? What are these effects and how should society deal with them? The authors of this volume attempt to answer these and other important questions by placing pornography within the broader context of theories of fundamental human nature. Their approach reveals a systematic interweaving of social science, morality and the law from three different perspectives: conservative//moralistic, liberal and feminist. The book will be an invaluable contribution to current research on pornography and obscenity.