The Agenda Setting Journal - Volume 2, Issue 1, 2018

This study advances agenda-setting theory by applying it to understand the media influence on the public’s perception of health issues. The longitudinal analysis compared news indices, public opinion polls, and reality indicators in the United States from 2001 to 2010. The results show that news media, especially print media, did have some agenda-setting effects on the public’s health priorities. However, the coverage had little to do with reality and, ironically, the media representation of certain health issues showed an opposite trend to that of the reality indicators. These findings call into question the responsibility of journalists in providing a complete and proportional representation of health concerns.

This study combines and extends two existing aspects of agenda setting: intermedia and visual agenda setting. It defines and explores intermedia visual agenda setting by comparing the Associated Press’ top photos to what appears on the front pages of top-circulation U.S. newspapers. Only 25.88% of Associated Press photos used on the front pages came from the Associated Press’ top visual agenda, but findings indicate top general news photos are more likely to be used and top sports photos are less likely to be used. Additionally, photos from the Associated Press’ top visual agenda are more likely to be in non-dominant positions on the front page. These findings indicate that some intermedia visual agenda setting takes place and calls for more research in this area.

As an application study of the network agenda-setting model, this study examines how the media and public network agendas can differ, based on which political candidate was mentioned along with the immigration issue in news coverage and in public tweets. Through network analyses, this study shows that there were differences in the salient attributes of the immigration issue, and that the dominant narrative structure of the issue depended on which political candidate was mentioned.

Using second-level agenda setting, this paper examines the coverage of Argentina’s 2009 media reform. To investigate the attributes the media used, data were collected from three national newspapers’ online publications (Clarín, La Nación, and Página/12). Results from the analysis suggest that the newspapers used different attributes and tone based on their political leanings. Content analysis before and after selected court’s rulings on the new media law demonstrate that La Nación and Clarín tended to converge in the way they used attributes and tone. When the rulings went against the interests of Clarín and La Nación, both newspapers reacted negatively, in tone and attribute, relative to Página/12.

This study tested the three levels of agenda building using an experimental design to identify possible causal relationships. This research contributes to the study and practice of political public relations by examining the process by which an issue is created and transferred to the public. Results indicate various support for agenda building including overall issue salience and issue attribute salience. The study also tested the compelling arguments hypothesis and found strong support for attribute salience contributing to overall issue salience. These findings are important for political public relations practitioners as it demonstrates that contextual issue attributes increase issue salience for the public.