'''Community structure theory''' provides a powerful framework for analyzing society’s influence on media coverage. It has been identified by Funk and McCombs as the “conceptual inverse” of [[Agenda-setting theory|agenda-setting]]<ref>{{cite journal|last2=McCombs|first2=M.|date=2015|year=|title=Strangers on a theoretical train: Inter-media agenda setting, community structure, and local news coverage|url=|journal=Journalism Studies|volume=|page=1-21|pages=|via=|last1=Funk|first1=M.J.}}</ref>, focusing on demographic characteristics of communities shaping news instead of news as a driver of public perception. For example, community structure theory has found repeated links between indicators of vulnerability (such as unemployment levels, poverty levels, crime rate, etc.) and favorable coverage of critical US national issues such as immigration reform or universal health care.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Tilted mirrors: Media alignment with political and social change: A community structure approach|last=Pollock|first=J.C.|publisher=Hampton|year=2007|isbn=|___location=Cresskill, NJ|pages=}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Journalism and human rights: How demographics drive media coverage|last=Pollock|first=J.C.|publisher=Routledge|year=2015|isbn=|___location=London and New York|pages=}}</ref> Further, in cross-national studies comparing national characteristics and reporting on human trafficking, HIV/AIDS treatment access, water handling/contamination, and child labor, media coverage varied significantly with levels of "female empowerment"— female literacy rate, female child life expectancy, and female school life expectancy. <ref name=":0" />
