Although media scholars often claim that news coverage impacts perceptions, and scholars of public administration stress the importance of public agencies' image in case of media storms, no one has studied if and how such storms affect public bureaucracy or, more specifically, front-line workers. We fill this lacuna by reviewing theoretical arguments for why and how media storms might be consequential at the street level of public services. We complement the arguments with an empirical

more »

... ion examining how the experience of pre-school teachers increased crosscutting pressures in the aftermath of a media storm about the quality of Danish crèches. In sum, we argue that scholars of media effects and public administration will benefit from bridging the divide between the two disciplines.