Front-Page News and Real-World Cues: A New Look at Agenda-Setting by the Media

Abstract

Research on agenda-setting role of news media has often been guided by a rather narrow conception of how media content affects members of public. In particular, reliance on a mirror-image model of media effects, and a focus on the agenda as an overall ranking of issues, has not shed much light on processes linking public issue salience to varying media attention. This study introduces an audience-effects model which treats issue-specific audience sensitivities as modulators, and news coverage as a trigger stimulus, of media impact on issue salience, issue by issue. An analysis of most important national mentions in 1974 National Election Study, augmented by data on front-page content in newspapers read by respondents and on real-world conditions in respondents' commuLnities, provides considerable empirical support for proposed audience-contingent effects model. In addition, secondary diffusion of problem salience through networks of informal social communication is shown to eventually override early news media impact. Our findings underscore need for research on agenda-setting to focus on both temporal and social dimension of media impact.