scholarly journals Setting the Public Agenda in the Digital Communication Age

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diogenes Lycarião ◽  
Rafael Cardoso Sampaio

The agenda-setting theory is one of the powerful study fields in communication research. Nevertheless, it is not a settled theory. Recent studies based on big data indicate seemingly contradictory results. While some findings reinforce McCombs and Shaw’s original model (i.e. the media set the public agenda), others demonstrate great power of social media to set media’s agenda, what is usually described as reverse agenda-setting. This article – based on an interactional model of agenda setting building – indicates how such results are actually consistent with each other. They reveal a complex multidirectional (and to some extent) unpredictable network of interactions that shape the public debate, which is based on different kinds of agenda (thematic or factual) and time lengths (short, medium or long terms).

Author(s):  
Alberto Ardévol-Abreu ◽  
Homero Gil de Zúñiga ◽  
Maxwell E. McCombs

The core hypothesis of the theory of agenda setting is that there is a process of transfer of salience from the media agenda to the public agenda. Since its original conception in the early 1970s, the explanatory model of ‘issue-agenda setting’ (first level) has been extended to help explain the transfer of the media’s ‘attribute agenda’ (second level) and ‘network agenda’ (third level) to the public agenda. This article provides a review of the agenda-setting model and its theoretical and empirical development, ending with a section that summarizes and discusses research studies published in this area in the last five years in Spain. Despite the broad influence of the agenda-setting theory in communication research in this country, Despite the broad influence of the agenda-setting theory in communication research in this country, many of the studies use the theory as a general framework for conducting a content analysis, withouh empirically testing any process of salience transfer. Resumen La teoría de la agenda setting establece como hipótesis central que existe un fenómeno de transferencia de relevancia desde la agenda de los medios de comunicación hasta la agenda del público. Desde su formulación en los años 70 del siglo XX, el modelo explicativo de la agenda setting de asuntos (primer nivel) se ha ido ramificando para poder explicar la transmisión de la agenda de los atributos (segundo nivel) y la agenda de redes –o relaciones– (tercer nivel). El presente artículo lleva a cabo una revisión del modelo y su evolución teórica y empírica, para acabar acercándose a su utilización en la investigación publicada en España en el último quinquenio. A pesar de la amplia repercusión de la agenda setting en la investigación publicada en este país, muchos de los trabajos utilizan la teoría como marco general para llevar a cabo análisis de contenido sin llegar a plantear (empíricamente) ningún fenómeno de transferencia de relevancia.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2 (40)) ◽  
pp. 5-25
Author(s):  
Dana Raluca BUTUROIU ◽  
Mihai GAVRILESCU

Based on recent ramifications of the traditional agenda-setting model, this paper aims at analyzing the convergence of the media and the public agenda in times of crisis. Specifically, drawing upon the network agenda-setting theory, this article explores the main key words associated with COVID-19—related topics in both the media and the public agendas. Main findings suggest that the media used context dependent key words to refer to the pandemic. At the beginning of the pandemic, in March 2020, both television and online news stories referred to issues related to the vi- rus itself, to the measures taken to limit its spread, and to some medical conditions, while in January 2021 media focused on key words related to vaccination and immunization. In terms of public agenda, results show that people tended to refer to pandemic-related issues mainly in negative terms, due to both media exposure and, presumably, personal experiences. These results offer valuable insights into the dynamics of both media and public agenda in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, providing fertile ground for better understanding how media shape several public attitudes and behaviors.


Author(s):  
Carolina Carazo-Barrantes

Abstract This paper analyzes the role of social media in electoral processes and contemporary political life. We analyze Costa Rica’s 2018 presidential election from an agenda-setting perspective, studying the media, the political and the public agendas, and their relationships. We explore whether social media, Facebook specifically, can convey an agenda-setting effect; if social media public agenda differs from the traditional MIP public agenda; and what agenda-setting methodologies can benefit from new approaches in the social media context. The study revealed that social media agendas are complex and dynamic and, in this case, did not present an agenda-setting effect. We not only found that the social media public agenda does not correlate with the conventional MIP public agenda, but that neither does the media online agenda and the media’s agenda on Facebook. Our exploration of more contemporary methods like big data, social network analysis (SNA), and social media mining point to them as necessary complements to the traditional methodological proposal of agenda-setting theory which have become insufficient to explain the current media environment.


Author(s):  
Maxwell McCombs ◽  
Sebastián Valenzuela

This chapter discusses contemporary directions of agenda-setting research. It reviews the basic concept of agenda setting, the transfer of salience from the media agenda to the public agenda as a key step in the formation of public opinion, the concept of need for orientation as a determinant of issue salience, the ways people learn the media agenda, attribute agenda setting, and the consequences of agenda setting that result from priming and attribute priming. Across the theoretical areas found in the agenda-setting tradition, future studies can contribute to the role of news in media effects by showing how agenda setting evolves in the new and expanding media landscape as well as continuing to refine agenda setting’s core concepts.


Author(s):  
Marco Aurelio Moura dos Santos ◽  
Marco Antonio Barbosa

Resumo: Aborda-se a formação do discurso ideológico do Direito e a influência do agendamento promovido pela mídia na formação da opinião pública, bem como a apropriação e/ou a influência da mídia na formação do discurso jurídico. Consta-se que as decisões judiciais cada vez mais são divulgadas e comentadas por especialistas nos meios de comunicação, especialmente as mais polêmicas, o que produz reflexividade “causa-efeito” entre os agendamentos noticiados e a consequente influência no ajuizamento de demandas, provocando a indagação se a legitimação do discurso dos profissionais do Direito sustenta-se apenas em fundamentos jurídicos e sociais ou se também sofre influência ideológica dos meios de comunicação. Conclui-se que o discurso jurídico é resultado de inúmeras ideologias, intensamente influenciadas pela opinião pública, que por sua vez também é determinada pelo agendamento promovido pela mídia.Palavras-chave: Mídia; Opinião pública; Discurso ideológico do direito; Ideologia; Sociedade da informação. Abstract: This paper deals with the formation of the ideological discourse of law and the influence that the agenda setting promoted by the media has in the formation of the public opinion, as well as with the appropriation and/or influence of the media in shaping the legal discourse. It is noted that court decisions are increasingly disclosed and commented by experts through the media, especially the most controversial, which produces a "cause and effect" reflexivity between the reported agenda and the consequent influence on the filing of demands, which causes questioning if the legitimacy of the legal practitioners’ speech supports itself only on legal and social grounds or if it is also influenced by the media. It concludes that the legal discourse is the result of many ideologies, heavily influenced by public opinion, which in turn is also determined by the agenda setting promoted by the media.Keywords: Media; Public opinion; Ideological legal speech; Ideology; Information society.


2014 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 328-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marius-Adrian Hazaparu

This article discusses the concept of advertising ethics in the particular case of a controversial advertorial campaign for a major mining project in Roşia Montană, a historical region of Romania. Based on the on the agenda-setting theory (Shaw & McCombs, 1977) and on the tripolar model of agendas (Watson, 2008), the analysis replaces the oversimplifying approaches to the ethics of advertising with a communicative perspective that highlights the need for a contextual examination of the ethical dilemmas arisen by advertorial practices. The study reveals that ethics is not only about solid and undisputable norms to be respected by professionals in the field or about ‘black and white’ moral verdicts given by ethicists or philosophers, but also about the study of contextual determinations that lead to ethical choices made by advertisers, based on the interactions between three interested agendas – corporate, policy, and media – in an attempt to rule over the public agenda.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Jurnal COMMED

The agenda of setting media is the media directing the public what is the main issue and perceived by thepublic as the main issue. The agenda setting concept recognizes three agendas, namely the media agenda,the public agenda, and the policy agenda. Type This research is descriptive research with quantitativeapproach and survey method. Location and object of research is selected purposively (deliberately) wherethe City of Batam is a city given the privilege of the status of the region that is Special Economic Zone(KEK). The sample was 399 people determined by cluster random sampling. The research was conducted byspreading the questionnaire and analyzed by Rank Spearman correlation. The result of this research showsthat 63,4% of SEZ implementation report in Batam Tribun Daily has high media agenda, 74,2% containshigh enough public agenda.


1995 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 300-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine R. Ader

This study found that the agenda-setting hypothesis was supported for the issue of pollution from 1970 to 1990. Real-world conditions and the public agenda were not correlated for this issue. Additionally, despite the overall reduction in pollution, media coverage has increased. However, for waste pollution there was a positive correlation found between the media agenda and real-world conditions.


Author(s):  
Maxwell McCombs ◽  
Iris Chyi ◽  
Spiro Kiousis

The agenda-setting role of the news media is a powerful influence on what we pay attention to and how we understand the vast world of public affairs that lies beyond our personal experience. Subsequent to the seminal Chapel Hill study in 1972, agenda setting theory has expanded beyond the influence of the news media on the public to elaborate the broader process of agenda setting. The scope of the theory now extends from the elements that shape the media agenda to the consequences of agenda-setting effects for attitudes and opinions. This article presents the results of two empirical studies recently published in the United States that further elaborate this process. One explicates how the press shifts its spotlight from one aspect to another of a major news event to build the prominence of that event on the media agenda. The second explicates the implications of prominence on the media agenda for the public’s attitudes and opinions about public figures.


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