Semantic Network Analysis, Mind Mapping and Visualization: A Methodological Exploration of the Network Agenda Setting Model

Abstract

The Network Agenda Setting (NAS) Model, the third level of agenda-setting theory, asserts that the ways in which the news media associate different objects, attributes and other pieces of information in depicting social reality will have a significant impact on how members of the public link these elements in their minds. In order to test the model’s unique theoretical focus on the transfer of network salience, researchers have developed (and are still developing) new methodologies that can best facilitate the empirical analysis. This chapter reviews some existing methodological approaches to examine the NAS Model, including semantic network analysis, mind mapping, and visualization techniques. Specifically, the following five steps of network agenda-setting analysis are discussed:Step 1: Operationalize the media network agenda. Step 2: Operationalize the public network agenda. Step 3: Compute the degree of correlation between the media and publicnetwork agenda. Step 4: Examine the causal relationship between the media and public net-work agenda. Step 5: Visualize the media and public network agenda.