New Avenues for the Study of Agenda Setting

Abstract

Existing literature on the agenda‐setting process is grounded and well cited in studies of U.S. national institutions, but emerging scholarship has taken the fundamental principles of agenda setting—attention, information, and learning—and has extended their applicability to understudied participants and institutions. This essay highlights three areas of study that have undergone particular growth during the last few years and best represent the trend of applying the well understood dynamics of agenda setting to a broader swath of participants in the policy process. We first examine how scholars have focused on agenda setting within U.S. state and local governments and the way these institutions balance their agenda‐setting needs internally, while still trying to be heard within a federal system. Second, we highlight policy scholars' contributions to create better definitions and measures of the relationship between the media and policy process. Finally, we explore the contributions to the broader agenda‐setting literature made by scholars examining non‐U.S. institutions. These three categories are but a part of the growing trend in the subfield to expand the scope of agenda‐setting research.