Inter-media agenda-setting effects among Chinese newspapers, Chinese blogs and the New York Times during coverage of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games

Abstract

The unique characteristics of blogs make them a new important media outlet. As the population of Internet users grows rapidly, blogging has become one of the most popular online activities in China. To examine whether blogs have an inter-media agenda-setting function similar to the traditional media, this study applies content analysis, cross-lagged correlation analysis, and Rozelle-Campbell baseline analysis to explore the causal relationship among Chinese newspapers—the Southern Metropolis, the Beijing News, the Modern Express—Chinese blogs, and the New York Times on issues related to the 2008 Beijing Olympics both for a short term (1 week) and a long term (1 month) time lag. The results indicate that Chinese newspapers set the issue agenda for Chinese blogs for both time lags; the New York Times set the agenda for Chinese newspapers for both time lags, but it had no influence on Chinese blogs for the short term time lag, and the results are mixed for the long term time lag. So far, there is no agreement on the optimum time lag for inter-media agenda-setting research of the Internet. Besides examining blogs’ agenda-setting effects, this study also provides useful tests about the optimum time lag for blogs and two types of newspapers, regionally and internationally.