The effect of a televised investigative news report on opinions of members of the general public, interest group elites, and governmental policy makers and on eventual public policy was studied. By collaboration with an investigative news team, the researchers learned in advance of the subject and air time of an "NBC News Magazine" segment investigating fraud and abuse in federal home health care programs. The study was aimed at discovering if this program influenced the public policy agenda by making such fraud and abuse in health care more important, causing a shift in priorities. Results indicate that media presentations do influence general judgments of problem importance among the public. The presentation influenced governmental policy makers but not interest group elites by altering their perception of the issue's importance, their belief that policy action was necessary, and their perception of the public's view of issue importance. Although the program was found to have an impact on policy, it was not the actual airing of the program or resulting public pressure on legislative representatives which created the policy outcome, but rather the active collaboration between journalists and policy makers in the ongoing process of the media investigation. (Author/LMM)