Media coverage and issue visibility: State legislative responses to school bullying

• We examine factors influencing state adoption of anti-bullying policies in schools.
• Media coverage drives adoption of state anti-bullying policies.
• Geographic diffusion patterns are less important than issue saliency.

Dealing with the schoolyard bully is an age-old problem; however, legislators have only recently tackled it at the state level. This study examines the adoption of anti-bullying policies from the policy diffusion and innovation perspective with an emphasis on the role of print media coverage. The study contributes to the policy diffusion literature by examining both national and local media coverage as conduits for diffusion and adds to the expanding views of the diffusion process beyond the traditional geographic proximity argument. Further, it provides the first examination of an emerging policy area important to education policy scholars. The findings show issue saliency via national media coverage drives policy adoption beyond any geographic proximity.