This panel analyzes the interrelation between the media and the political agenda from an agenda setting perspective. The goal is to discuss how media coverage determines policy-makers priorities; to what extend policy makers have an influence on the media agenda, and when and under which circumstances this influence occurs. A vast set of studies has already analyzed these questions emphasizing different explanatory factors. For some, the capacity of the media to impact the political agenda varies across countries depending on media system characteristics (Hallin and Mancini 2004, Norris 2000, 2009) or their exposure to global forces (Currant et al. 2009, Castells 2010). Other authors stress the contingent nature of the interrelation between the media and the political agenda. Vliegenthart and Walgrave (2011) or Green Pedersen and Stubager (2011) consider that the capacity of the media to influence policymakers activities is linked to party politics and party competition, while other authors (Baumgartner and Jones 1993, 2009, Van Aelst and Walgrave 2009, Soroka 2002, Bennet et al. 2004) emphasize the importance of other factors like issue features or/and media outlets. This panel addresses these questions from a theoretical and empirical perspective.