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This paper examines the longitudinal evolution of correspondences among the issue agendas of the mass media, Congress, and the public from 1946 to 2004. The time unit is one year. Data are derived from the New York Times coverage, Gallup's Most Important Problem series, and Congressional hearings. The evolutions of, as well as the causal relationship among, the three agendas and their agenda-setting effects are analyzed and discussed.

This study examines factors that lead to winning matches in men's singles Grand Slam tennis, and proposes guidelines for coaches and professional tennis players both in training and preparation for Grand Slam competitions. Using longitudinal data between 1991 and 2008 retrieved from the official website of the Association of Tennis Professionals, we analysed player performance over 9,144 matches in men's singles Grand Slam tournaments. To predict match outcome, 16 variables were classified into one of three categories: player skills and performance, player characteristics and match characteristics. The three categories were entered sequentially into a logistic regression model to predict the dependent variable: the chance of winning a men's singles Grand Slam match. The final altered model explains 79.4% of the variance (Nagelkerke's pseudo R (2)) in match outcomes and correctly predicted 90.6% of cases. The importance of serving, receiving, and break points is further confirmed. The positive effect of stature diminishes when players are taller than 186 cm. We recommend more training in returning skills; to avoid overestimation of the positive impact of stature, left hand and professional experience; and that a male player begins his professional tennis career by participating in the US Open or Wimbledon.

This study aims to explore first-level agenda setting at the state level. In particular, it examines the relationships among media coverage of local newspapers, state-level public opinion, and state legislative policies. In addition, it tests two state-level intervening factors: state legislative professionalism and state political culture. This study includes a geographic scope of eighteen U.S. states and a time period of twenty-two years from 1984 to 2006. The media agenda is represented by the news coverage of a state’s most popular newspaper. The public agenda employs a survey question asking, “What is the most important issue facing the state?” The policy agenda is defined by the number of bills that are introduced in the state house. This study finds a moderate and positive relationship between the newspaper agenda and the public agenda in five U.S. states from 1984 to 1997, a strong positive relationship between the newspaper agenda and the policy agenda in fifteen U.S. states from 1989 to 2006, and a weak positive relationship between the public agenda and the policy agenda in South Carolina in 1989 and 1990. State political culture moderates the degree of agenda-setting effects between the newspaper coverage and the legislative policies.

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