Agenda Setting Research Articles

News Media Effects on Policy Priorities: A Second-Level Agenda-Setting Analysis of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Projects in Myanmar

This study investigates the impact of the media’s secondary agenda-setting on public perception and policy priorities regarding the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects in Myanmar from to 2011–2024. Three hypotheses (Hs) were examined: H1 posits that media coverage aligns with public and policy perspectives; H2 proposes that media emphasis on specific attributes influences their prominence in public opinion and policymaking; and H3 suggests that public opinion mediates the relationship between media coverage and policy priorities, indicating an indirect media influence on policymaking. This study employed a cross-sectional research design, utilizing both quantitative content analysis and survey methodologies. The content comprises the analysis of two news outlets’ coverage (n = 144), surveys with 385 respondents (n = 385), and in-depth interviews with 30 participants (n = 30), and the findings revealed a significant positive correlation between media coverage and public opinion and policy priorities (r = 0.86, r = 0.81, respectively). SEM path analysis reveals that the media agenda indirectly shapes the policy agenda through the public agenda, with an indirect effect path coefficient of 0.718, highlighting the media’s role in policymaking processes. This is evidenced by a significant correlation between media coverage and public opinion (p < 0.05), and a strong direct association between public opinion and policy priorities (p < 0.05). This study extends the agenda-setting theory by empirically demonstrating the media’s indirect effect on policy formation in global infrastructure projects within a developing Southeast Asian country. Future studies should examine the evolution of media patterns across different administrations, including the current one. The results also suggest examining the broader media portrayal of governance issues and conducting extensive research on the media’s impact on public opinion.

Influence of lobbying in EU policy process phases

The influence of lobbies in the European Union is a complex phenomenon that must be analyzed through various direct and indirect conditioning dimensions. This theoretical research examines the impact of pressure groups at each of the six stages of the public policy formulation process in the supranational entity: problem emergence in society, agenda setting, consideration of policy options, decision-making, policy implementation, and policy evaluation. The study reveals how the influence of lobbies fluctuates depending on the point in the process and the type of interests they represent. Lobbies with social interests tend to have an advantage in phases involving public engagement, using grassroots lobbying strategies. On the other hand, economic lobbies dominate in phases that require contact with legislators, employing direct communication strategies. Among the direct conditioning dimensions, economic capacity–whether explicitly or implicitly−and access to decision-makers are crucial factors in determining the degree of influence. Additionally, in terms of indirect dimensions, media coverage is considered the most explanatory element regarding the influence capacity of lobbies, particularly at the initial and final stages of the governance cycle.

Combating racism with critical race theory: Theorizing social movement learning from anti-racism movements in Canada

Despite the success of critical race theory (CRT) in bringing about an intellectual movement that profoundly influenced the setting of a racial justice agenda in educational research since its inception 30 years ago, the material racial inequity still prevails and continues to subordinate people from racialized communities in and beyond the classroom. As such, it is time that we re-examine the way CRT has been interpreted and applied in educational research to better fulfill CRT’s promise of racial justice. The rise of the current wave of anti-racism movements presents a critical moment for such re-examination. This article therefore examines the current and potential engagement with CRT in educational research by analyzing and theorizing CRT-informed social movement learning to illustrate how we can fully realize the anti-racism potential of CRT in educational research. What we learn from the various forms of learning in the anti-racism movements suggest that a combination of anti-racism voices and practices is vital to mobilize learning as enactment of multiple forms of agency to combat racism through critical creative anti-racism struggles. Future CRT educational research can further recognize CRT as an integrated and evolving framework in which the centering of race and racism to illuminate multiple nexus of subordination serves as a starting point to develop anti-racism strategies and that CRT educational research can embrace a form of criticality against racism as practices of critique and creation of alternatives.

Establishing and implementing the National Action Plan Health Literacy in Germany

About ten years ago, studies on health literacy in Germany indicated that population health literacy was low. This prompted agroup of distinguished experts to initiate the development of aNational Action Plan for Health Literacy (NAP-HL) for Germany, modeled after those of other countries. This article explains the origins and development of the plan in Germany, provides an overview of the steps taken during its creation, and summarizes its content. Subsequently, the transfer strategy, including the three steps of diffusion, dissemination, and implementation, is discussed. The concluding assessment evaluates the plan's achieved impacts and critically reflects on the implementation strategy. Overall, numerous impulses were provided for agenda setting and the promotion of health literacy. The challenge remains to develop sustainable interventions for strengthening health literacy, accompanied by systematic research.

Certainly Without Freedom: The Moscow News as Synecdoche for the Russian Press

ABSTRACT The putsch of August 19–22, 1991, was the futile last gasp by hardliners to frustrate the liberalization of Soviet society, avoid the disintegration of the Soviet Union, and prevent the disappearance of the Communist Party from its predominant role in national life. It was also a watershed for Russia and for the Russian press. For three days, tanks and troop carriers prowled Moscow streets as Boris Yeltsin was bottled up in the Russian parliament building and Mikhail Gorbachev was detained in the Crimea. Tens of thousands of ordinary Russian citizens, outraged at this assault on the freedoms they began to taste under perestroika, blockaded streets and offered themselves as human shields for Yeltsin until the coup collapsed. This study considers the Moscow News, the first English-language newspaper in Russian history, as synecdoche for the history of the Russian press since 1917 and through 2007, with the August 1991 putsch as pivot. The article discusses the transformation of the Russian press in the wake of the coup and how agenda setting fits into a Russian model.

Covering Climate Change: How Three American Agricultural Magazines Covered Climate Change Over 20 Years

Climate change will have an increasing impact on agriculture through both on-farm weather events and climate-related initiatives. However, many farmers, while perceiving the climate as changing, do not believe in climate change’s anthropogenic (i.e., human-caused) nature which could prevent farmer buy-in for climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies. Because agricultural magazines have been established as a widely utilized source of information for farmers and media coverage has been shown to relate to perceptions through the agenda setting process, this study investigated the nature of the coverage of climate change articles from three agricultural magazines from 2000-2020 (N = 271). Through a quantitative content analysis, we determined the articles’ frames, sources, proposed economic impact of climate change, recommended action or proposed solution, determined cause of climate change, and logic (convinced or skeptical). This analysis revealed the dominant frame of the articles were scientific certainty, followed by political, conflict, and scientific uncertainty. The most frequently used sources were university scientists/Extension, followed by government officials and government research organizations. Articles were most likely to not mention the cause or economic impact of climate change. Articles tended to mention carbon sequestration more than other potential behaviors. The articles mostly portrayed a convinced logic about climate change. This study serves as a cultural artifact of the nature of climate change coverage in agricultural magazines and contributes to the burgeoning research efforts to best communicate this contentious topic to agriculturalists and encourage adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices.

SHAPING MINDS THROUGH DISCOURSE: PROPAGANDA NARRATIVES IN MOLDOVA’S 2024 ELECTIONS

This study analyses the propagandistic narratives and the discursive strategies used by the pro-Russian political parties / groups in the Republic of Moldova during the week preceding the presidential elections and the referendum. The analysis focuses on the ȘOR Party, the PSRM, the PCRM, who have actively used their platforms for the dissemination of anti-European Union narratives and for the promotion of scepticism towards the pro-European government. By using content and discourse analysis, our research identifies the main rhetorical tools, and the main logical fallacies used to manipulate public perception. Building on theoretical frameworks such as the Agenda-Setting Theory and the 4Ds of disinformation, our study manages to uncover the recurrent narratives employed, as well as the efforts of these parties made to exploit the emotional vulnerabilities of their audience, thereby sowing fear, confusion, and disunion

Nigerian Audience Views on Mainstream Media and Moulding of Public Opinion in the 21st Century

every human society. However, with the influence of web 2.0 technologies that have hugely affected journalism practice in the 21st century, this study investigated the extent at which mainstream media still mould public opinion in Nigeria. The paper was anchored on agenda-setting and media dependency theories as it investigated mass media’s ability to mould the views of people on issues of public concern. Survey research design was used where multi-stage sampling technique was adopted in selection of the samples, whereas the Australian Calculator was used to draw a sample size of (371), the questionnaire served as the instrument for data collection. The results revealed that, though social media and blogs have influenced public communication generally, the mainstream media still mould public opinion in Nigeria. This was revealed as respondents disclosed that in taking decisions, they believe and use more information obtained from mainstream media than information gotten from blogs and social media sites. Keywords: Information, journalism, mass media, masses, social media

Agenda Setting for Food Estate Policy in Multiple Stream Frameworks (MSF) Perspective: Case in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia

Agenda setting is critical to public policy due to impacts on subsequent policy processes. In 2020, The Indonesian government has issued a food estate policy in response to FAO's warning of a food crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This policy has also been included in the National Strategic Project (PSN) as stipulated through Presidential Regulation No. 109/2020. This policy aims to create new paddy fields in order to maintain national food stock needs, especially rice, by prioritizing intensification and extensification of paddy fields. Now this program has received serious attention and is considered to have failed. The failure of food estates can often be attributed to the lack of community involvement in the planning and implementation of such projects. Applying the multiple streams framework, this study found two agenda setting failures, namely failure to define the problem from policy entrepreneurs and skipping the policy formulation stage. The study recommends revisiting agenda setting and adding participation streams to open up space for deliberation in decision-making through the participation of Dayak customary council institutions through their local wisdom and knowledge.

Agenda Formation and Prediction of Voting Tendencies for European Parliament Election using Textual, Social and Network Features

Abstract As per agenda-setting theory, political agenda is concerned with the government’s agenda, including politicians and political parties. Political actors utilize various channels to set their political agenda, including social media platforms such as Twitter (now X). Political agenda-setting can be influenced by anonymous user-generated content following the Bright Internet. This is why speech acts, experts, users with affiliations and parties through annotated Tweets were analyzed in this study. In doing so, the agenda formation during the 2019 European Parliament Election in Germany based on the agenda-setting theory as our theoretical framework, was analyzed. A prediction model was trained to predict users’ voting tendencies based on three feature categories: social, network, and text. By combining features from all categories logistical regression leads to the best predictions matching the election results. The contribution to theory is an approach to identify agenda formation based on our novel variables. For practice, a novel approach is presented to forecast the winner of events.

Between policy issues and values: the public discourse of constrained presidents in Western Europe

ABSTRACT Constrained presidents considerably use going-public strategies among their possible patterns of behaviour. However, presidential going public is under-investigated in Europe. This paper specifically addresses this gap in literature by focusing on New Year (NY) and Christmas (CH) speeches of Western European presidents in office since the 1990s. The paper aims at investigating if and to what extent policy issues are relevant in their public discourse and what issues they specifically prime. This is a comparative research involving four semi-presidential (Austria, Finland, Ireland and Portugal) and two parliamentary regimes (Germany and Italy) for a total of 21 presidents and 144 speeches. By combining qualitative content analysis and descriptive statistics the most relevant coding references have been linked to the characteristics of presidents (i.e. their party family and their term of office) as well as to the characteristics of the political system where they operate (parliamentary vs. semi-presidential systems) to understand if certain specific patterns may be identified or not. The main findings are that although policy issues are not always the most developed compared to polity issues and values, presidents often succeed in transforming a ceremonial speech into a means of agenda setting. In addition, domestic issues are more developed than EU and foreign policy issues in presidential speeches, and presidents tend to prime the policy issues owned by their original party.

Xi–Biden Summit coverage: Chinese media frames for global and domestic readers

Situated against the recent tumultuous backdrop of Sino–U.S. relations, this study examines the coverage of the November 2023 Xi–Biden Summit by the People’s Daily and China Daily. As authoritative, national-level media outlets reflecting party policies, the People’s Daily, published in Chinese, primarily caters to a domestic audience, while China Daily, in English, targets an international readership. Using framing analysis grounded in agenda-setting theory, this paper investigates how these two outlets presented the summit to foster public support for China’s U.S. policy, particularly after a decade of predominantly negative portrayals. The study examines which aspects were emphasized, downplayed, or omitted and identifies key similarities and differences in their approaches, considering the implications for their respective audiences. Our findings show that both the People’s Daily and China Daily portrayed the summit positively, highlighting President Xi’s diplomatic efforts and China’s commitment to constructive engagement with the United States. This approach emphasizes China’s growing global influence and its willingness to work with other major powers. However, while the People’s Daily focused on areas of agreement and cooperation for domestic readers, China Daily also addressed contentious issues by employing conflictual frames in line with Western news conventions. Additionally, China Daily emphasized cultural elements underscoring China’s heritage and civilization. This study offers valuable insights into how state media outlets frame and interpret such diplomatic events, revealing the nuances of Chinese media narratives and their impact on domestic and international audiences.

Phronetic Risk in Research Agenda Setting – the Case of Nutrition Science and Public Health

ABSTRACT Justin Biddle and Quill Kukla have introduced the concept of phronetic risk to refer to epistemic risks emerging in activities that either are conditions for empirical reasoning or included in empirical reasoning and that have to be weighted according to different values and interests. In this paper, I show how a phronetic risk arises in research agenda setting. Given the prevalence of noncommunicable diseases associated with diet, there is a need for science-based nutritional public health interventions. However, how the relation between nutrition and health should be studied is a contested matter. I argue that the choice between different approaches of studying nutrition-related disease causation involves considerable phronetic risks that cannot be managed by researchers alone. Funding agencies, non-governmental organisations and science policy decision makers should be considered epistemically relevant actors.

Climate Change Communication Among European and American Politicians from 2015 to 2020 on X

Climate change is a multifaceted issue that encompasses environmental, social, cultural, and political dimensions. Greater involvement and awareness have been fostered among online community members thanks to the rise of the internet and the use of social media networks. Among these, X (formerly known as Twitter) stands out as a catalyst for creating shared knowledge, connectedness, and concern among its members, contributing to a greater sense of responsibility. Much attention has been paid to the influence of X on politicians, who use it as a vital political tool to engage with the public, set agendas, and signal policy intentions. This paper delves into an analysis of climate change communication on X by 36 politicians from the EU and the U.S. It seeks to determine whether there is a correlation between language use and geographical location based on the assumption that the European Union has had a more stable and coherent concern about climate change over time, compared to the United States (Wendler, 2022). By means of corpus linguistics and discourse analysis, based on a modern-diachronic approach, multiword expressions extracted from an ad hoc corpus of 163 753 tweets are examined to identify their lexical saliency (Baker, 2006). Despite limitations, this paper is an attempt to shed light on the communicative strategies employed by politicians in addressing climate issues and highlights the need for further investigation into climate change communication on a global scale.

"Breaking Agenda Setting Boundaries: A Multi-Dimensional Approach to Understanding Salience of Gun Control in the Polarized Public Sphere

"Breaking Agenda Setting Boundaries: A Multi-Dimensional Approach to Understanding Salience of Gun Control in the Polarized Public Sphere

Network Agenda Setting, or Networked Framing? (Non)correspondence Between User and Right-Wing Media Semantic Networks on YouTube

How does media shape and reflect right-wing rhetoric in the U.S.? Theories of media effects have moved towards networked approaches to agenda setting and framing, but it remains uncertain how issue attributes or frames emerge in the U.S. media ecosystem in which users themselves can shape political rhetoric through discussion on social media. We provide the largest test to date of the different predictions of networked agenda setting (NAS) theory and networked framing, through a semantic network analysis of all 19,112 video transcripts and 661,958,464 user comments posted on the YouTube channels of four major U.S. conservative media outlets between January 2019 and March 2021. Both overall, and within key topics like COVID-19 or Black Lives Matter, we find that user comments diverge strongly from video transcripts, with users repeatedly introducing associations, emotionally charged rhetoric, and conspiracy theories not originally present. Our results challenge claims by network agenda setting scholars that “objects and attributes can be transferred simultaneously in bundles” from the media agenda to the public agenda, but are more consistent with scholarship on networked framing. We argue that future work should strive to synthesize both approaches.

Comparing Sinn Féin between North and South: Do institutional context and varying public attitudes drive party policy preferences?

One underexplored aspect of Sinn Féin is its position as an electorally competitive party that operates simultaneously in two separate jurisdictions. Sinn Féin’s operation (i.e. one centralised party, two jurisdictions) allows for a Most Similar Systems Design which can help determine how – and to what extent – its policy preferences differ between North and South. This also provides a test of issue competition and agenda-setting theory, which assumes that policy preferences must adapt to the unique vote and office-seeking incentives operating on political parties within states. This article draws upon new datasets from the Irish Policy Agendas Project and the Public Policy Agendas on a Shared Island project which have coded party manifestos (North and South) based on the Comparative Agendas Project coding scheme. The results support the assumptions made by issue competition and agenda-setting theory. Sinn Féin in the North tends to prioritise the representation of nationalist concerns, while Sinn Féin in the South focuses on more typical social democratic issues. But when nationalist interests are secure in Northern Ireland, Sinn Féin’s policy focus shifts to bread-and-butter issues that resemble its policy preferences in the Republic of Ireland.

Why do governments fund some humanitarian appeals but not others?

AbstractMotivationWhat explains the fact that the humanitarian response in some crises is well funded, while other humanitarian emergencies are largely neglected? The literature identifies three groups of factors that influence aid allocations: needs in recipient countries, donor countries' interests, and agenda setting driven by media coverage; although there is debate over how relatively important these are.PurposeThis study tests existing theory by adding three novel aspects.Approach and MethodsFirst, rather than just measuring the amount of money available, we consider the share of funding that is provided against the stated requirements. Second, we measure humanitarian needs in a more detailed way than has typically been the case. Third, we use datasets that have been underutilized in the academic literature.FindingsBy using these three novel approaches, we confirm that all three factors—humanitarian needs, strategic interests, agenda setting—play a role. However, the most consistent factor is media coverage. We are also able to distinguish between different dimensions of need: the number of hosted refugees makes a difference, but the number of displaced people does not. We find that countries with the worst human rights situations attract lower funding levels and more democratic countries attract more funding.Policy ImplicationsDonors should consider how the factors identified in this study influence their funding decisions in the aggregate. They should be aware of how media coverage may influence their allocations of humanitarian funding. Journalists should be aware of potential biases in their reporting on humanitarian emergencies. Aid agencies should consider counteracting the factors that are associated with underfunded emergencies.

China’s digital diplomacy agenda and public engagement: an analysis in Africa on twitter (X)

ABSTRACT This study explores China’s digital diplomacy strategies directed toward African countries through content and public engagement analysis of 1,681 tweets from the Twitter account of the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Africa Department. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, tweets are categorized into key themes revealing China’s public diplomacy agenda. Referring to the agenda-setting theory in public diplomacy, the analysis focuses on international relations, economic partnerships, and COVID-19 aid, all the while respecting African sovereignty while critiquing Western approaches. The findings highlight that China strategically employs digital diplomacy to position itself as a benevolent partner upholding the noninterference principle. An average interaction rate of 78.73 is observed, with the security theme attracting the highest engagement despite a limited messaging focus from Chinese diplomacy. The level and variability of interaction across themes expose nuanced engagement dynamics. Examining the highest tweet engagement patterns finds that highly interactive topics are related to trade/investment, education/technology, and state visits, signaling audience interest. Highly engaging tweets predominantly accumulate likes, suggesting passive endorsement, which is reflective of diplomatic social media. This study contributes to understanding China’s evolving digital diplomacy, which is tailored to foreign policy priorities and the effectiveness of strategic communication approaches in engaging African audiences.

"Quality Women's Healthcare Should Be A Top Priority": Service Women's Experiences With the Health Care Provided by the Netherlands Armed Forces.

Fit and healthy military personnel are the basis for a strong organization and good health care is essential to ensure service people's deployability. This applies equally to female-specific health care (FSH). Quality health care can help not only to recruit but also retain more women in the military. However, as there is a lack of empirical studies focusing on service women's experiences with FSH, this study explores female military personnel's experiences with FSH in the Netherlands Armed Forces (NAF), including conditions such as menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause in order to find ways of improving these women's health care and self-care. We carried out a qualitative study involving 4 focus groups of service women (n = 17) from all military branches of the NAF (Navy, Air Force, Army, and Military Police). Using inductive thematic analysis, we ascertained 4 key themes: inadequate knowledge and experience among military primary care providers; a perceived lack of gynecologists in the military health care system; difficulties around FSH-related self-care; and inadequate (and inadequately provided) information on menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause. Our findings imply several recommendations to foster good FSH. Changes are needed on four fronts: agenda setting, information, normalization, and implementation. Leaders and role models can bring the topic FSH to the chain of command's attention. The NAF are currently not focusing sufficiently on FSH. In order to provide their female personnel with a high quality of care, this will require changes in policy, implementation, and supervision as well as fostering the development of an open culture that enables discussions on FSH.