The Agenda Setting Journal

Agenda-setting theory, the most popular theory in mass communication, has expanded to other areas beyond communication including business, history, finance, politics and sports. Dr. Maxwell McCombs (University of Texas at Austin) and his research partner, Dr. Donald Shaw (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), introduced the theory in 1972. The original article has been cited in more than 6,000 studies. Originally, McCombs and Shaw’s term “agenda setting” showed a correspondence between the order of importance given in the media to issues and the order of significance attached to the same issues by the public and politicians.

While the essence of the definition remains the same, the idea has exploded into an internationally-recognized, maturing and expanding theory. A research tradition focused on the interface of the mass media agenda and the public agenda has been used by scholars/academics, industry professionals and think tanks globally to explain political, economic, historical, social, sociological, psychological, sports-centric, health-related, medicinal, business-oriented, technological and more concepts.

The Agenda Setting Journal: Theory, Practice, Critique focuses on the theoretical developments that continue in agenda setting and how the theory is applied to areas outside of mass communication. The journal also represents the growth and maturity of the communication field as it is also the first and only to-date theory-based journal in the communication discipline.