Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Agenda-Setting: 50 Years of Research

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Patterns of News Consumption in a High-Choice Media Environment

Part of the book series: Springer Studies in Media and Political Communication ((SSMPC))

  • 202 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter provides an introduction to the topic of agenda-setting theory and its relevance in the context of the media landscape. It begins by highlighting the importance of agenda-setting as a theory that explores the influence of media on shaping public opinion and political discourse. It introduces the concept of agenda-setting theory and its core principles. Then, Buturoiu, Corbu and Boţan further delve into the relationship between agenda-setting, priming and framing. Additionally, the authors explore different typologies of frames used in agenda-setting research, offering a comprehensive understanding of the ways in which issues and events are framed by the media. Lastly, the chapter examines the role of agenda-setting in the new media landscape. It acknowledges the transformative impact of digital media on the dissemination and consumption of news and information. Overall, this chapter sets the stage for further exploration of agenda-setting processes and their effects on public opinion and political communication.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 99.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Borah, P. (2011). Conceptual issues in framing theory: A systematic examination of a decade’s literature. Journal of Communication, 61(2), 246–263.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Borah, P., Austin, E., & Su, Y. (2022). Injecting disinfectants to kill the virus: Media literacy, information gathering sources, and the moderating role of political ideology on misperceptions about COVID-19. Mass Communication and Society, 26, 1–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cacciatore, M., Scheufele, D. & Iyengar, S. (2016). The end of framing as we know it and the future of media effects. Mass Communication & Society, 19(1), 7–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cappella, J., & Hall-Jamieson, K. (2010). Spiral of cynicism: The press and the public good. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chong, D., & Druckman, J. (2007). A theory of framing and opinion formation in competitive elite environments. Journal of Communication, 57(1), 99–118.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, B. (1963). The press and foreign policy. Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coleman, R., & Wu, H. D. (2021). Individual differences in affective agenda setting: A cross-sectional analysis of three U.S. presidential elections. Journalism, 23(5), 992–1009.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Vreese, C. H. (2005). News framing: Theory and typology. Information design journal+ document design, 13(1), 51–62.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Vreese, C. H. (2010). Framing the economy: The effects of journalistic news frames. In P. D’ Angelo & J. Kuypers (Eds.), Doing framing analysis (pp. 203–230). Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Druckman, J., & Nelson, K. R. (2003). Framing and deliberation. American Journal of Political Science, 47, 728–744.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Entman, R. (1993). Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm. Journal of Communication, 43(4), 51–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Entman, R. M., & Usher, N. (2018). Framing in a fractured democracy: Impacts of digital technology on ideology, power and cascading network activation. Journal of Communication, 68(2), 298–308.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ewoldsen, D. R., & Rhodes, N. (2020). Media priming and accessibility. In M. B. Oliver, A. A. Raney, & J. Bryant (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory and research (4th ed., pp. 83–99). Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gamson, W. A. (1992). Talking politics. Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gamson, W. A., & Modigliani, A. (1987). The changing culture of affirmative action. Research in Political Sociology, 3, 137–177.

    Google Scholar 

  • Geiß, S. (2019). The media’s conditional agenda-setting power: How baselines and spikes of issue salience affect likelihood and strength of agenda-setting. Communication Research, 49(2), 296–323.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gerbner, G., & Gross, L. (1976). Living with television: The violence profile. Journal of Communication, 26(2), 172–199.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilardi, F., Gessler, T., Kubli, M., & Müller, S. (2022). Social media and political agenda setting. Political Communication, 39(1), 39–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goffman, E. (1974). Frame analysis: An essay on the organization of experience. Boston Northeastern University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guo, L. (2016). A theoretical explanation of the network agenda setting model: Current status and future directions. In L. Guo & M. E. McCombs (Eds.), The power of information networks: New directions for agenda setting (pp. 3–18). Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guo, L., & Vargo, C. (2020). “Fake news” and emerging online media ecosystem: An integrated intermedia agenda-setting analysis of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Communication Research, 47(2), 178–200.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Howlett, M. (2022). The routledge handbook of policy tools (Routledge international handbooks) (1st ed.). Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Iyengar, S. (1991). Is anyone responsible? How television frames political issues. University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Iyengar, S., & Kinder, D. R. (1987). News that matters: Television and American opinion. University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Iyengar, S. (2001). The effects of media-based campaigns on candidate and voter behavior: Implications for judicial elections. Indiana Law Review, 35, 691–699.

    Google Scholar 

  • Iyengar, S. (2005). Speaking of values: the framing of American politics. The Forum, 3(3), 1–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Iyengar, S., Lelkes, Y., Levendusky, M., Malhotra, N., & Westwood, S. J. (2019). The origins and consequences of affective polarization in the United States. Annual Review of Political Science Research, 22(1), 129–146.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kahneman, D. (2003). A perspective on judgment and choice: Mapping bounded rationality. American Psychologist, 58(9), 697–720.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1984). Choices, values, and frames. American Psychologist, 39(4), 341–350.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kiousis, S., & McCombs, M. (2004). Agenda-setting effects and attitude strength: Political figures during the 1996 presidential election. Communication Research, 31, 36–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kosicki, G. M. (1993). Problems and opportunities in agenda-setting research. Journal of Communication, 43(2), 100–127.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krosnick, J. A., & Kinder, D. R. (1990). Altering the foundations of support for the president through priming. American Political Science Review, 84, 497–512.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Langer, A. I., & Gruber, J. B. (2021). Political agenda setting in the hybrid media system: Why legacy media still matters a great deal. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 26(2), 313–340.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, B., Liu, J., Choung, H., & McLeod, D. M. (2021). Exploring numerical framing effects: The interaction effects of gain/loss frames and numerical presentation formats on message comprehension, emotion, and perceived issue seriousness. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 98(2), 387–406.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Luo, Y., Burley, H., Moe, A., & Sui, M. (2019). A meta-analysis of news media’s public agenda-setting effects, 1972–2015. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 96(1), 150–172.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCombs, M. (1997). Building consensus: The news media’s agenda-setting roles. Political communication, 14(4), 433–443.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCombs, M. (2004). Setting the agenda: The mass media and public opinion. Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCombs, M. E., & Shaw, D. L. (1972). The agenda-setting function of the mass media. Public Opinion Quarterly, 36, 176–187.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCombs, M. E., & Shaw, D. L. (2017). The agenda-setting function of mass media. The Agenda Setting Journal, 1(2), 105–116.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCombs, M., & Valenzuela, S. (2021). Setting the agenda: Mass media and public opinion (3rd ed.). Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • McQuail, D. (2005). McQuail’s Mass Communication Theory. 5th Edition, Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moy, P., Scheufele, D., Eveland, W., & McCleod, J. (2001). Support for the death penalty and rehabilitation: Question order or communication effects. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 31, 2230–2255.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nabi, R., Walter, N., Oshidary, N., Endacott, C., Love-Nichols, J., Lew, Z.., & Aune, A. (2020). Can emotions capture the elusive gain-loss framing effect? A meta-analysis. Communication Research, 47(8), 1107–1130.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neuman, R., Guggenheim, W., Mo Jang, S., & Bae, S. (2014). The dynamics of public attention: Agenda-setting theory meets big data. Journal of Communication, 64(2), 193–214.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Noelle-Neumann, E. (1974). The spiral of silence: A theory of public opinion. Journal of Communication, 24, 43–51.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Perloff, R. M. (2022). The fifty-year legacy of agenda-setting: Storied past, complex conundrums, future possibilities. Mass Communication and Society, 5(4), 469–499.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Price, V., & Tewksbury, D. (1997). News values and public opinion: A theoretical account of media priming and framing. In G. Barett, & F. Boster (Eds.), Progress in the communication sciences: Advances in persuasion (Vol. 13, pp. 173–212). Ablex.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rossiter, E. L. (2021). Measuring agenda setting in interactive political communication. American Journal of Political Science, 66(2), 337–351.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scheufele, D. A. & Iyengar, S. (2014). The state of framing research. Oxford Handbooks Online.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scheufele, D., & Tewksbury, D. (2007). Framing, agenda setting, and priming: The evolution of three media effects models. Journal of Communication, 57(1), 9–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schuck, A., & de Vreese, C. (2006). Between risk and opportunity: News framing and its effects on public support for EU enlargement. European Journal of Communication, 21(1), 5–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Semetko, H., & Valkenburg, P. (2000). Framing European politics: A content analysis of press and television news. Journal of Communication, 50(2), 93–109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shah, D., Domke, D., & Wackman, D. B. (2003). The effects of value-framing on political judgment and reasoning. In S. Reese, O. Gandy, & A. Grant (Eds.), Framing public life: Perspectives on media and our understanding of the social world (pp. 227–244). Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shah, D., Kwak, N., Schmierbach, M., & Zubric, J. (2004). The interplay of news frames on cognitive complexity. Human Communication Research, 30(1), 102–120.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shaw, D. L., Minooie, M., Aikat, D., & Vargo, C. J. (2019). Agendamelding: News, social media, audiences, and civic community. Peter Lang.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Shehata, A., & Strömbäck, J. (2013). Not (yet) a new era of minimal effects: A study of agenda setting at the aggregate and individual levels. International Journal of Press/Politics, 18(2), 234–255.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shoemaker, P., & Reese, S. (2014). Mediating the message in the 21st century: A media sociology perspective (3rd ed.). Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sniderman, P., & Theriault, S. (2004). The structure of political argument and the logic of issue framing. In W. Saris & P. Sniderman (Eds.), Studies in public opinion: Attitudes, nonattitudes, measurement error, and change (pp. 133–165). Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stroud, N. J. (2013). The American media system today: Is the public fragmenting? In T. N. Ridout (Ed.), New directions in media and politics (pp. 6–23). Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tewksbury, D., & Scheufele, D. (2009). News framing theory and research. In J. Bryant, & M. Oliver (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory and research (pp. 17–33). Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Valkenburg, P. M., & Oliver, M. B. (2020). Media effects theories: An overview. In M. B. Oliver, A. A. Raney, & J. Bryant (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory and research (4th ed., pp. 16–35). Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vargo, C. J. (2018). Fifty years of agenda-setting research: New directions and challenges for the theory. The Agenda Setting Journal, 2(2), 105–123.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vargo, C. J., Guo, L., & Amazeen, M. A. (2018). The agenda-setting power of fake news: A big data analysis of the online media landscape from 2014 to 2016. New Media & Society, 20(5), 2028–2049.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weaver, D., McCombs, M., & Shaw, D. L. (2004). Agenda-setting research: Issues, attributes, and influences. In Lee-Kaid, L. (Ed.). Handbook of political communication research, (pp. 257–280). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weaver, D. (2007). Thoughts on agenda setting, framing, and priming. Journal of Communication, 57, 142–147.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zaller, J. (1992). The nature and origins of mass opinion. Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Communication and Public Relations, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (SNSPA), Bucharest, Romania

    Raluca Buturoiu, Nicoleta Corbu & Mădălina Boțan

Authors
  1. Raluca Buturoiu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Nicoleta Corbu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Mădălina Boțan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Buturoiu, R., Corbu, N., Boțan, M. (2023). Agenda-Setting: 50 Years of Research. In: Patterns of News Consumption in a High-Choice Media Environment. Springer Studies in Media and Political Communication. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41954-6_2

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation