Creating shared realities through communication:: exploring the agenda-building role of the media and its sources in the E-coli contamination of a Canadian public drinking water supply

The media's role as an agenda-setter has been documented in the literature, however less attention has been given to the role of the media as an agenda-builder. The role of news agencies in constructing and shaping news stories serve to mediate risk messages to the public by virtue of what elements of a story they report, the types of sources they use in reporting the different 'sides', and how they package a story. The media are not the only ones who seek to set and build agendas. The sources, upon which the news media rely, can and do similarly engage in agenda-building activities. They do so by appropriating the very 'media-ted' process to use the mass media as a delivery vehicle for their own communication claims through their own packaged 'take' on the story. Drawing on a national print and televised media analysis of the Walkerton, Ontario, Canada drinking water contamination event, this study explores the agenda-building role of the media and of Walkerton residents and citizen group members (Concerned Walkerton Citizens) quoted in media stories. The implications of this for risk communication will be discussed.