Agenda-setting Effects Research Articles

Inter-Candidate Agenda Setting Effect of the 2018 Mexican Presidential Election: Political Party Candidates Vs. an Inde-pendent Candidate

The 2018 Mexican presidential election marked the initiation of a new political communication dynamic in which traditional electoral communication strategies of political parties were challenged by an independent candidate. This study evaluated this innovative electoral setting by examining Telemundo’s electoral coverage of party-affiliated candidates —Anaya Cortés, Meade Kuribreña, and López Obrador— and the independent candidate —Rodríguez Calderón— through agenda setting theory. The data was collected from Telemundo’s national newscast “Noticias Telemundo” with José Díaz Balart during INE’s official 90-day electoral campaign period. The inter-candidate agenda setting effect regarding the horse race topics was strong among the contenders suggesting that Telemundo’s journalists were disseminating the same information regarding party candidates, but the journalists’ reporting differed when covering the independent candidate. Outcomes indicate that there were two dominant political discussions in Telemundo regarding horse race topics, one emerging from all party candidates and the other one from the independent candidate. The inter-candidate agenda setting effect of issues presented strong correlations among all contenders, suggesting that their policy issues news agendas in Telemundo were nearly identical, which could have made it difficult for voters to distinguish among the candidates’ campaign messages. Overall, Rodríguez Calderón challenged parties’ political communication strategies in terms of horse race topics for his ability to disseminate a distinct campaign message in Telemundo despite having acquired the most negative coverage from journalists. But the independent candidate did not represent an opposition for parties regarding issues because his political rhetoric was not dissimilar from the other contenders.

The Relationship Between News Coverage of COVID-19 Misinformation and Online Search Behavior

ABSTRACT The spread of health misinformation poses a threat to public health as it can influence individuals’ health beliefs and, potentially, behaviors, and their support for public health policies. The mainstream news media have the potential to inadvertently increase the salience of misinformation through their reporting. This study explores the agenda-setting effects of mainstream news media coverage on public salience of public health misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyzed the association between news media coverage and public salience – as measured by Google Trends relative search volume – of three different pieces of COVID-19 misinformation: (1) hydroxychloroquine is a safe and effective treatment for COVID-19; (2) the COVID-19 vaccines cause infertility; and (3) ivermectin is a safe and effective treatment for COVID-19. We plotted news coverage of each piece of misinformation against Google Trends relative search volume over time. Autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models were used to account for autocorrelation and analyze the relationship between the two time series. News media coverage volume was a significant predictor of same-day relative search volume for hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. The relationship between news media coverage and searches for COVID-19 vaccines and infertility was not significant. These findings indicate mainstream news media coverage may contribute to the public salience of misinformation. Mainstream media outlets should contextualize their reporting on misinformation with verification from scientific consensus.

New Media in China and Kazakhstan: The Information Agenda in the Context of Modernization

Agenda-setting is a theory that examines the reconfiguration of the mass environment. Since 1968, when American communication scholars McCombs and Shaw began to systematically study the agenda-setting effect of mass communication, scholars around the world have conducted in-depth discussions on the topic and developed a number of theoretical hypotheses, including "attribute agenda-setting," "agenda fusion," "agenda setting by attributes," "agenda fusion," and "agenda setting by affiliated networks." To date, the concept of "agenda setting" remains a significant area of interest for scholars engaged in the study of public opinion.

Media Network and Citizen Journalism: The Transition from Agenda Setting to Agenda Loop

ABSTRACT This study examines agenda-setting and citizen journalism networks between Baidupedia, the Chinese version of Wikipedia, and various media channels, demonstrating the influence of effective agenda-setting on individuals’ engagement in citizen journalism behavior. Using social network analysis and Granger causality tests, we found that Baidupedia is part of the agenda network of mainstream media, portal websites, and other media outlets. Our research also highlights the “agenda loop” phenomenon, where outcomes from individuals’ news production shape the agendas of other media channels, expanding our understanding of agenda-setting on an individual’s level. Cultural influences and regulations as well as the political system also significantly contribute to the intermedia agenda-setting effect. These findings contribute to our understanding of agenda-setting in the present media environment and shed light on the correlation between effective agenda-setting and people’s participation in citizen journalism production.

Second-level agenda-setting effects of news media and public policy on social media discourse across platforms: immigration during the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S.

ABSTRACT Integrating intermedia, second-level agenda-setting, and cross-platform research, this study examines the role of news media attention and public policy decisions in driving the salience of issue attributes on multiple social media platforms. We collected three immigration-related datasets (i.e., social media posts, news media headlines, and policy documents covering the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic that also marked the last year of the Trump presidency) and applied manual coding, automated text analysis, and time series modeling to analyze the relationships. The results show that news media set the public agenda across Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube at the second level, with conservative media elevating travel-related discussion and liberal media driving border- and court-rulings-related discussion on those platforms. Compared to news media, the second-level agenda-setting effect of policy announcements was small and platform-specific. Among the three platforms, public discourse on YouTube was the most responsive to media and policy agendas. These findings advance second-level agenda-setting research, demonstrate partisan differences in news media’s impact, reveal the limited role of public policy, and provide a nuanced portrayal of cross-platform public discourse dynamics.

The optimal time-lag for media’s third-level agenda-setting effect

The optimal time-lag for media’s third-level agenda-setting effect

Comparing Agenda-Setting Effects for the Issue of Migration Measured with Three Different Indicators of the Public Agenda

Abstract Recent agenda-setting studies have increasingly replaced survey data with readily available, nonreactive data that at first glance might serve as indicators of the public agenda to the same extent: the amount of online search queries regarding an issue and the volume of donations for non-profit organizations that are collecting money for problem solving related to an issue. This raises the question of whether the results of agenda-setting studies depend on which of these indicators is used to measure the public agenda. In this study, we compare the agenda-setting effect of media coverage of migration on the public salience of this issue in Germany between 2015 and 2020 as measured by three different indicators of the public agenda on a monthly basis: survey data, Google Trends data, and fundraising data. Our analyses show significant simultaneous correlations between the media agenda and all three indicators of the public agenda, with a smaller influence of the media agenda on fundraising data than in the other two cases. However, when Granger causality is used to identify causal relationships, a positive influence of the media agenda on the public agenda is only found when the public agenda is measured with survey data.

The media's coverage and framing of hospital reforms: The case of Germany

Abstract Aim In Germany, a long-lasting debate about the need for a hospital reform, including centralisation, now resulted in reform plans. As cutbacks to essential services such as hospitals are an emotional topic, the public should be properly informed, which is a central role of the media. Based on a media analysis of a large-scale hospital reform in Denmark, showing that the media’s reporting might have had an agenda-setting effect, we analysed the media’s coverage and framing of restructuring the hospital landscape in German newspapers. Subject and methods A systematic search identified relevant articles in national and regional newspapers. The coverage between January 2018 and January 2023 was analysed regarding quantity and main theme (agenda-setting). Each article’s title and main text were analysed for tone and whether it focused on episodic (single events) or thematic (broader context) framing. Results A total of 705 newspaper articles (592 regional, 113 national) were included. Both regional and national newspapers mainly used episodic framing. Regional newspapers mostly reported on single closures of hospitals or departments. The tone of the title and main text in national newspapers was mainly negatively depicted, which applied to less than half of the articles in regional newspapers. These differences were, however, not statistically significant. Conclusion Results indicate higher agenda-setting effects in regional compared to national newspapers. However, the overall high amount of episodic framing can result in less attribution of responsibility to policy-makers, thereby conserving the status quo. To succeed, a media strategy might help to raise problem awareness among the public.

Health Canada Framing during the COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout: Effective or Not?

Background: Utilizing a constructionist frame analysis to identify key messages, this study investigates the impact of Health Canada news releases on print media coverage during the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine. Analysis: The analysis focuses on seven frames related to the vaccination rollout: safety and efficacy, global accessibility, domestic accessibility, distribution logistics, distribution timeline, continued preventative measures, and vaccine mistrust. Conclusions and implications: The authors found missed opportunities for public health behaviour frames in Health Canada press releases, significant differences in the framing of the vaccine in press releases versus news reports, and the lack of an agenda-setting effect based on the proportion of frames carried over.

Setting the misinformation agenda: Modeling COVID-19 narratives in Twitter communities

This research investigates the dynamics of COVID-19 misinformation spread on Twitter within the unique context of Finland. Employing cutting-edge methodologies including text classification, topic modeling, social network analysis, and correspondence analysis (CA), the study analyzes 1.6 million Finnish tweets from December 2019 to October 2022. Misinformation tweets are identified through text classification and grouped into topics using BERTopic modeling. Applying the Leiden algorithm, the analysis uncovers retweet and mention networks, delineating distinct communities within each. CA determines these communities’ topical focuses, revealing how various groups prioritized different misinformation narratives throughout the pandemic. The findings demonstrate that influential, diverse communities introduce new misinformation, which then spreads to niche groups. This agenda-setting effect is amplified by social media algorithms optimized for engagement. The results provide valuable insights into how online communities shape public discourse during crises through the strategic dissemination of misinformation.

Intermedia Attribute Agenda Setting Between the U.S. Mainstream Newspapers and Twitter: A Two-Study Analysis of the Paradigm and Driving Forces of the Agenda Flow

Performing two studies, we explore the intermedia attribute agenda-setting effects between the U.S. mainstream newspapers and Twitter. Leveraging computational methodologies, Study 1 analyzes 3,541 newspaper articles and over 1.06 million tweets about the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement, illustrating asymmetrical reciprocity of substantive attributes and mutual independency of affective attributes between both outlets. Study 2 performs in-depth interviews with 16 American journalists, showing that journalists increasingly see Twitter as a news source hub, a self-promotion platform, and a prism of distorted public sentiments. The juxtaposition of both studies revealed the paradigm and driving forces of the intermedia agenda flow.

"Teen Fled Danger into the Arms of Death": The Political Agenda Setting Effect of Australian News Media Framing of Violence Against Women.

News framing of violence against women (VAW) has important implications for public understanding of this epidemic problem in Australian society, and in turn, politicians' impetus to act. This article uses a frame-building model to analyze media reporting of three cases of VAW. The murder of Eurydice Dixon, who was killed by a stranger, was framed thematically and received substantial media attention. Conversely, Larissa Beilby and Qi Yu, who were killed in incidents of domestic violence (DV), were framed episodically and received less coverage. The impact of this differential media attention is compared to public and political responses to theorize that thematic frames create a larger political agenda-setting effect, despite DV presenting a larger societal problem than stranger violence.

Personal Agenda-Public Agenda Congruency: A Contingent Condition for Agenda-setting Effects

This paper focuses on the concept of the impact area as the intersection between the common issues of the personal agenda and the public agenda. Expanding the concept of agenda-setting effects, which focuses mainly on the relation between the public and media agendas, we have examined the congruity of the public agenda and the personal agenda as a contingent condition for the strength of these effects. The concept also distinguishes between the top-priority issues of the public and personal agendas, setting out that the general public’s search for information about these top-priority issues highlights the need for orientation. We used data from Spain to focus on the national elections (2011, 2015 and 2019), plus the beginning of the pandemic (2020). The study includes a content analysis of the El País daily newspaper for the four periods and a variety of surveys and representative electoral barometers. To those data we have added an analysis of the main search topics on Google Trends for each of the four years. The results reveal that variations in the relationship between the public and personal agendas are linked to the strength of the agenda-setting effect between the media and public agendas.

Trends of Agenda Setting Research: A Bibliometric and A Thematic Meta-Analysis

Agenda-setting studies continue to experience an evolutionary process. It goes beyond its initial assumption, which is the transfer of meaning from the media agenda to the public agenda, and expands to experience replication. Recent literature studies regarding the mapping of agenda-setting studies have not been carried out much. Therefore, this study aims to find trends in agenda setting research in the global scope based on agenda setting data from 2014 to 2022. Trends in the global scope are interesting to study to see agenda-setting studies today. This study uses the Bibliometric Analysis and a thematic theme analysis approaches. The research show that politics-related topics have dominated over the last eight years. The use of network agenda-setting (NAS) and agenda-setting intermedia (IAS) theory, content analysis and survey, and Twitter are essentials part of this study. The entire development of digital media is slowly leaving conventional media. Therefore, future studies, in the presence of a variety of media platforms, need to design alternative models and methodologies that can explain the power of influence of each media in shaping the agenda-setting effect.

Exploring Agenda Setting Through Social Media by Text Mining and Data Analysis: A Case Study of Roe V. Wade Overturn and Discussions on Twitter

Traditional theories of agenda setting address that mainstream media (news reports) can influence the public's perceived importance of agenda. However, as the rise of social media, such as Twitter, penetrated people's lives, they became one of the critical tools for receiving and exchanging information. The study examines whether social media, such as Twitter, can influence the public agenda. On June 24, 2022, Roe V. Wade was announced to be officially overturned, along with uproar on the Internet. However, a month ago, on May 2, 2022, a few news agencies reported that the decision was leaked from the Supreme Court, and the discussion on social media was not yet significantly heated. This study attempts to understand the overturn of Roe V. Wade through Twitter, which yields an agenda-setting effect by raising the public's attention. The authors used Twitter's streaming media and RStudio to collect and select a total of 10,000 tweets in two time periods, from May 3, 2022, to May 17, 2022, and June 24, 2022, to July 17, 2022, respectively, with 5,000 tweets in each period for data analysis. The results showed that the total number of retweets from the 5,000 Twitter users during the official version was 23.2 times higher than during the leaked version. In addition, after the release of the official version, people showed significantly higher levels of emotional expression and anger than during the leaked version.

Manufacturing conflict or advocating peace? A study of social bots agenda building in the Twitter discussion of the Russia-Ukraine war

ABSTRACT After the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, social media become the major contested field for both sides. Social bots are widely involved in the Russia-Ukraine war discussion as communication actors. However, how social bots build the war agenda has not been well answered. This study explores the role of social bots through time series analysis and Structural Topic Model. The study finds that at the aggregate level there is a two-way agenda-setting between social bots and human accounts, and at the secondary level, social bots show different or even opposite agenda-setting effects in national/regional discussion. In addition, we find that social bots exhibit multiple positions in the conversation, reflecting the complexity of the manipulators behind them. This multiplicity of positions reveals that the role played by social bots is still based on the opposition of one side to the other, and the end result may exacerbate the conflict of online public opinion.

Making their Mark? How protest sparks, surfs, and sustains media issue attention

ABSTRACT Media attention is both an important outcome and a resource for protest groups. This paper examines media-movement dynamics using television news coverage of 1,277 protests in Belgium (2003–2019). We situate protest coverage in media issue attention cycles and scrutinize whether features of protest or rather media issue attention fluctuations are key for protest’s agenda-setting effect. Our results show that while most protests fail to alter the attention cycle, a considerable share of protests is followed by a significant increase in media issue attention, especially when surfing issue attention already on the rise. Overall, media issue attention cycles rather than protest features affect protest’s agenda-setting effect, suggesting that protest agenda-setting is more a matter of exploiting discursive opportunities than of forcing one’s issue on the media agenda by signaling newsworthiness. These findings have serious implications for our understanding of protest group agency in news making and agenda-setting.

Third Level Intermedia Agenda: Comparative Analysis of Electoral Rigging Issue Coverage in Urdu Press of Pakistan

The imprints of media’s agenda setting may be traced evidently during elections campaigns as the coverage of political issues, pertaining to the political parties contesting in the elections, seems to be more heightened on different mass media platforms. This study describes the relationship of network inter-media agenda setting, examining the coverage of ‘electoral rigging’ issue which emerged as the key political issue and slogan of losing political party and gained the momentum of a movement against the ruling political party, blaming them of coming in power after a rigged election, during post elections 2013 in Pakistan. ‘Social Network’ analysis technique was used to analyze the data collected from three newspapers belonging to leading media houses of Pakistan ; Daily Jang, Daily Dunya and Daily Express to explore the relationship of inter-media agenda setting networks. Findings conclude that all three newspapers were found on the same agenda about elections-2013 in news coverage. However, editorial policy of Daily Dunya and Daily Jang was different on electoral rigging issue. Daily Dunya editorial policy was also found different about PML-N government from other two papers. Finally, it is argued, although intermedia agenda setting are found valid in Pakistan, yet effects are larger for national issue of electoral rigging, and minimal in case of political party, PML-N rigging. QAP Correlation results indicate strong association among the agenda of three newspapers. However, these associations are different for two issues; Electoral rigging, and PML-N rigging. Intermedia agenda setting effects are larger for the issue of electoral rigging, and minimal for the issue of PML-N rigging.

Does the Agenda-Setting Effect Always Work?

The media is viewed as an external mechanism of corporate governance in a large body of literature. In agenda-setting research, the media can exert influence on corporate emissions behavior by controlling the public and government agenda. However, it is unclear whether such effect will be influenced by the regional institutional environment. The authors construct a theoretical framework including different types of media and corporate environmental behavior, which is used to investigate the impact of institution informatization on the media agenda-setting effect. The authors then used a sample of Chinese industrial enterprises from 2011 to 2014 to test this hypothesis. The empirical results reveal that both printing and electronic media elicit improvement on corporate environmental performance. Institutional informatization can significantly enhance the disincentive effect of electronic media on corporate emissions, while the moderating role in the relationship between printing media and corporate emissions is not significant.

News Media Exposure and Community Consensus on Terrorism in a Developing Country: First and Second Level Agenda-Setting Effects

This study investigates how increased news media use corresponds to an increasing consensus among different subgroups in society regarding social issues (first level of agenda-setting) and consensus on the attributes of the terrorism issue (second level of agenda-setting). With its cross-sectional design, the study, includes a content analysis of three leading newspapers and three television channels, coupled with a systematic random sample survey of the audience. Results indicated that news media use and consensus-building studies regarding an agenda of important issues confronting the community were not replicated within the Pakistani public. In contrast, the pattern of increased news media use and consensus on the attributes of the terrorism issue was strongly replicated in Pakistan. The findings further showed that news media reduced differences among divergent demographic subgroups and contributed to how these groups think about and understand issues. It was concluded that news media, by emphasising certain aspects of terrorism, contributed to the development of social consensus among diversified segments of a population concerning to their opinion about different aspects of terrorism. Thus, the media must be free of political and ideological pressures to act as a pluralistic platform to form an informed public opinion.