There were also elements of the Cobb and Elder Model which could be identified in the case study. Here, Cobb and Elder believe that policy makers must take on a greater level of responsibility. Major stakeholders, like popular politicians must support issues in order to gain agenda-setting status. As such, it is clear that Commissioner Tom Foerster's support was crucial in getting the policy changes needed to better serve the community of Allegheny County. His support helped set the need for an agenda to be made, and he took it on as his responsibility to see the policy process from the design stages to implementation and then finally to success. He was greatly influenced by the environment of the Great Depression, which instilled within him the philosophy that government should have strong and effective public services in order to provide for those in need. Foerster also made his changes very public in order to gain further support from the county that would secure funding from the state. News production helps build agendas. Essentially, "both frame building and agenda building refer to macroscopic mechanisms that deal with message construction...
Foerster utilized the press and news building as a way to shed positive light and not deter the public after witnessing so much money being spent on the policy changes.
References
Anderson, Don. (2009). Public Policy Praxis: A Case for Understanding Policy and Analysis. 2nd ed. Pearson Publishing.
Burns, Melanie. (2013). The policy process model & agenda setting. University of Minnesota. Web. http://blog.lib.umn.edu/burn0277/pa5012/2013/03/agenda-setting.html
Moij, Jos. (2003). Smart Governance? Politics in the Policy Process of Andhra Pradesh, India. Overseas Development Institute. Web. http://www.odi.org.uk/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/2464.pdf
Scheufele, Dietram a. & Tewksbury, David. (2007). Framing, agenda setting, and priming: The evolution o three media effects models. Journal of Communication, 57(2007), 9-20.
Sutton. Rebecca. (1999). The Policy Process: An Overview. Overseas Development Institute. Web. http://www.eldis.org/vfile/upload/1/document/0708/DOC7279.pdf
