Setting the agenda: the mass media and public opinion

Abstract

Dedication Title page Copyright page Boxes Preface 1: Influencing Public Opinion Our pictures of the world Contemporary empirical evidence The accumulated evidence Cause and effect A new communication landscape Summing up 2: Reality and the News Idiosyncratic pictures Perspectives on agenda-setting effects Content versus exposure Agenda-setting in past centuries Summing up 3: The Pictures in our Heads Pictures of political candidates Candidate images in national elections Candidate images in local elections Media influence on candidate images Attributes of issues Attributes of environmental issues Media influence on issue attributes Compelling arguments A third level of agenda-setting Attribute agenda-setting and framing Summing up 4: Why Agenda-Setting Occurs Relevance and uncertainty Occurrence of agenda-setting effects Relevance Personal experience with public issues Individual differences, media use and agenda-setting Summing up 5: How Agenda-Setting Works Evolution of issue agendas Explaining the transfer of salience Timeframe for effects Diversity of salience measures Summing up 6: Consequences of Agenda-Setting Priming public opinion Attribute agendas and opinions Forming opinions Attitudes, opinions and behaviour Agenda-setting role of business news Summing up 7: Shaping the Media Agenda The president and the national agenda Subsidizing the media agenda Capturing the media agenda Three election agendas Media agendas in local elections Attributes of local issues Three elements of elections A broader portrait Intermedia agenda-setting Summing up 8: Mass Communication and Society Transmission of culture New agenda-setting arenas Other cultural agendas Concepts, domains, and settings Continuing evolution of agenda-setting theory Epilogue: Media Agenda-Setting and Audience Agenda-Melding Political agenda-melding Our need for community agenda-melding Bibliography Index