Defining agenda-setting as the ability of the mass media to influence the level of the public's awareness and perceptions of political issues, a study was conducted to examine the agenda-setting power of the black periodical press in the United States. Survey responses collected by the University of Michigan Center for Political Studies were analyzed to determine respondents' assessments of the most salient issues for black Americans. The media agenda was determined by analyzing 441 front-cover articles of political issues from the black magazines "Ebony,""Black Enterprise," and "Essence," from 1974 to 1982. The data indicated significant differences between blacks and whites regarding which political issues were most important. Blacks mentioned social welfare issues more often, while whites most often mentioned economics and business issues as being most important. The content analysis demonstrated that the black periodical press set the agenda of salient issues for black adults between 1978 and 1980. This limited support of the agenda-setting influence suggests that media power is conditioned by one of three conditions: (1) issue salience for black adults is internal, and therefore is consistent over time; (2) the black periodical press often is out of touch with its readers, as shown by the variance of the media agenda during the years of the study; or (3) black adults turn to other media or nonmedia sources for guidance in their perceptions of the "issues of the day," as shown by the independence from black media of issue salience for black adults. (HTH)