This article contains a critical analysis of agenda-setting theory and research. In choosing and displaying news, editors, newsroom staff, and broadcasters play an important part in shaping political reality. Readers learn not only about a given issue, but also how much importance to attach to that issue from the amount of information in a news story and its position, thus the term agenda-setting. Agenda-setting applies to more than one area of research. To explicate the theory, four topics are considered: the general hypothesis of agenda-setting, the importance of the general hypothesis, the functional aspect of the general hypothesis, and the effects aspect of the general hypothesis. While this review indicates the potential value of agenda-setting theory, it also raises some issues concerning the theory and its research. (RB)