South Texas journalism: A case study of historical agenda-setting, 1861-1865

In a span of two decades, agenda-setting has been a topic of interest in the communication field. Despite this interest, agenda-setting studies lack attempts to make the concept of agenda-setting useful in an historical context. This content analysis was designed to determine what agenda South Texas newspapers set with the Civil War coverage between January 1861 and May 1865. The process of agenda-setting is described by quantity and kind of war coverage. The findings of this thesis lend support to the research question that South Texas newspapers did make the Civil War part of their agenda. This thesis indicates that 39 percent of South Texas newspapers expressed an interest in covering the Civil War.