The Dynamics of Political Communication Chapter 6 Setting and Building the Agenda © 2018 Taylor & Francis

What is Agenda-Setting? Bernard Cohen on the press (1963): “It may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about." An agenda is an issue or event that is perceived at a particular point in time as high in social or political importance. Agenda-setting is “a process through which the mass media communicate the relative importance of various issues and events to the public” (Rogers & Dearing, 1988, p. 555). What are some important issues that you haven’t heard discussed much on the news? How might that lack of coverage affect the political attention they get? © 2018 Taylor & Francis

What do we know about Agenda-Setting? Salience is perceived importance; by allocating space or time to certain issues, the media increases their salience To support agenda-setting theory, data must show: A relationship or correlation between the media agenda and public agenda That it works across different issues and contexts That media cause changes in citizens’ agendas More than 425 studies of agenda-setting have been conducted, and the bulk of the data supports the theory Influential study: Iyengar & Kinder (1987, 2010) demonstrated the impact of television news on perceptions of the most important problems facing the nation © 2018 Taylor & Francis

How Does Agenda-Setting Work? “Agenda setting does not operate everywhere, on everyone, and always” (Rogers & Dearing, 1988, p. 569) Two ways it can work: Media coverage cues a heuristic decision-making rule (short-circuited processing) Personal concern for issue leads individual to read more news stories on the topic and judge importance (systematic processing) © 2018 Taylor & Francis

a mOdEL OF Agenda-Setting Personal Experience and Interpersonal Communication Gatekeepers & Major Events Media Agenda Public Agenda Policy Agenda In interpreting this model, what constraints do you see that the media agenda may be limited by? Real World Indicators of Issue Importance © 2018 Taylor & Francis

Wrinkles in Agenda-Setting: The Power of Context When media effects depend on other factors, those factors moderate or help determine when media are influential and when they are less important. Key conditions that moderate agenda-setting effects: News play – lead stories have stronger influence Nature of issue – rapid onset issues (e.g., terrorist attack) differ from slow-onset Partisan media Can be good if it allows a variety of agendas to take hold, reducing the ability of a handful of media to set one agenda Problematic when it merely reinforces existing beliefs © 2018 Taylor & Francis

Consequences of Agenda-Setting 5-step process for agenda-setting’s influence on voting: Individuals can’t pay close attention to everything that happens in politics Rather than trying to analyze everything, people rely on the most accessible information The media powerfully determine which issues come to mind via agenda-setting Once the media set the agenda, they can prime voters Priming can influence the way people vote Priming is a psychological concept describing how a prior stimulus influences reactions to a subsequent message. © 2018 Taylor & Francis

Priming Priming describes the impact of the media agenda on the criteria voters use to evaluate candidates Example: If the most recent lead stories on the news pertain to the economy, news-viewing voters are primed to evaluate candidates on economic issues more than other issues and with more importance ascribed to those economic evaluations What specifically do you recall about news coverage of Hillary Clinton prior to the 2016 election? Did that coverage prime voters to evaluate her on any particular criterion or draw attention from other criteria? © 2018 Taylor & Francis

Agenda-Setting and Priming in Recent Elections 1992: Clinton campaign slogan “The economy, stupid” primed voters to focus on economic issues. 2008: Obama primed voters to focus on economic issues because: The economy was in bad shape Polls showed the public blamed the party in power (Republicans) 2016: News of terrorism exerted agenda- setting and priming effects on the eve of Republican primaries 2016: During the general election, Clinton and Trump tried to prime issues that would work to their advantage Clinton: her temperament and foreign policy leadership Trump: immigration and terrorism © 2018 Taylor & Francis

The Big Picture Having now heard multiple perspectives, is the media’s ability to set the agenda ultimately a good thing or a bad thing for democracy? Issues compete for attention, and their proponents – lobbyists, activists, and ideologues – must persuade policymakers to devote time and money If an issue isn’t defined as a problem by the media or political elites, it can’t move through the stages necessary for a problem to be contemplated, considered, discussed, and solved When media direct their focus on an issue, a policy agenda can diffuse throughout society, leading to policy change Agenda-building plays an important role in democracy by providing a path by which media and political institutions can sow the seeds for social change © 2018 Taylor & Francis

Agendas in the Digital Age When have you seen social media content directly impact the mainstream media agenda? Mainstream media are one among a variety of influence agents in the digital age Conventional journalists no longer dictate the media agenda Intermedia agenda-setting refers to the ways that particular media outlets set the agenda for other media and the news in general E.g., influential news outlets like the New York Times affect the choices of other media outlets Social media plays different roles in agenda-setting: Provides pathways to construct partisan agendas as online messages reinforce salient beliefs and diffuse among like-minded others Influences via opinion leaders in a networked two-step flow Exerts a direct role in agenda-building (e.g., deluge of Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook posts protesting a breast cancer advocacy organization that ended their financing toward Planned Parenthood in 2012) © 2018 Taylor & Francis

Conclusions The media set the agenda Agenda-setting has consequences, such as priming Media agenda-setting operates in the context of a larger culture, society, and political environment An issue does not remain on the agenda forever In a digital age, conventional media have less impact on agenda building © 2018 Taylor & Francis