The fight for ‘how to think’: Traditional media, social networks, and issue interpretation

Abstract

This study tested social influence theories against traditional media attribute agenda setting theory within 18 ideologically diverse political blogs, two elite traditional media entities, and the latter’s 11 political newsroom blogs across three issues in 2007. Results reveal significant correlations in left-leaning network agendas ranging from 0.64 to 0.91 through all issue periods. Social influence did not homogenize interpretative agendas within the right-leaning network through two of the three issue periods. As predicted, partisan blog networks showed insignificant correlations in attribute agendas, and unlike the left-leaning and moderate blog networks, the right-leaning blog network bore little similarity to traditional media’s issue interpretation across two of the three issues.These findings point to two significant trends: the growing power of social influence among partisan blog networks and the weakening influence of elite, traditional media as a singular power in influencing issue interpretation within networked political environments.