Wayne Wanta

At first glance, the concepts of priming and agenda setting appear very similar. Both are based on the assumption that news coverage in the media will impact perceptions held by the public. Both assume individuals will use the frequency of coverage in the news as cues to their perceptual formations. However, priming and agenda setting diverge in several important ways, including the ultimate outcome of individuals' exposure to the media messages. The purpose of this entry is to highlight both the similarities and differences. Agenda setting has often been described by using the quote from Bernard Cohen's The Press and Foreign Policy. Here, Cohen, explaining how the press influences the public, wrote: "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" (Cohen, 1963, p. 13). An example that demonstrates this process: Let's say that the local newspaper began running a series of stories about the city's need for strict gun control laws. Members of the public see the articles and so are exposed to information about the need for gun control. The outcome of the exposure to the stories, however, does not necessarily demonstrate an influence on the public's attitude toward gun control. Instead, the media influence is that the public sees that gun control is an important issue. Two important points about this process are sometimes overlooked. First, Cohen argued that the press "may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think." Much of the time implies that the media can, at certain times, under certain circumstances, with certain people, influence what people think about issues. If individuals are uncertain about an issue or the issue is of high personal relevance, people may be more susceptible to attitude change based on media coverage. Weaver (1977) refers to uncertainty and relevance as factors in the "need for orientation," which has important implications for agenda setting as well as attitude change. Second, the Cohen quote implies that the final outcome from the agenda-setting process involves cognition: learning about the important issues of the day. This created an important paradigm shift for mass communication research. Prior to the initial agenda-setting study by McCombs and Shaw (1972), the prevailing school of thought in this field presumed limited effects of mass communication. The limited effects paradigm emerged when researchers were finding minimal media effects on voting behavior. Thus, researchers shifted from studying behavioral effects to cognitive effects. Priming, on the other hand, offers a different final outcome. Humans, priming researchers argue, are cognitive misers (Willnat, 1997)-they do not take all of their knowledge into account when facing a need for information. They create cognitive shortcuts, connecting the information need with previous stored information that is most readily available.

At first glance, the concepts of priming and agenda setting appear very similar. Both are based on the assumption that news coverage in the media will impact perceptions held by the public. Both assume individuals will use the frequency of coverage in the news as cues to their perceptual formations. However, priming and agenda setting diverge in several important ways, including the ultimate outcome of individuals' exposure to the media messages. The purpose of this entry is to highlight both the similarities and differences. Agenda setting has often been described by using the quote from Bernard Cohen's The Press and Foreign Policy. Here, Cohen, explaining how the press influences the public, wrote: "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" (Cohen, 1963, p. 13). An example that demonstrates this process: Let's say that the local newspaper began running a series of stories about the city's need for strict gun control laws. Members of the public see the articles and so are exposed to information about the need for gun control. The outcome of the exposure to the stories, however, does not necessarily demonstrate an influence on the public's attitude toward gun control. Instead, the media influence is that the public sees that gun control is an important issue. Two important points about this process are sometimes overlooked. First, Cohen argued that the press "may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think." Much of the time implies that the media can, at certain times, under certain circumstances, with certain people, influence what people think about issues. If individuals are uncertain about an issue or the issue is of high personal relevance, people may be more susceptible to attitude change based on media coverage. Weaver (1977) refers to uncertainty and relevance as factors in the "need for orientation," which has important implications for agenda setting as well as attitude change. Second, the Cohen quote implies that the final outcome from the agenda-setting process involves cognition: learning about the important issues of the day. This created an important paradigm shift for mass communication research. Prior to the initial agenda-setting study by McCombs and Shaw (1972), the prevailing school of thought in this field presumed limited effects of mass communication. The limited effects paradigm emerged when researchers were finding minimal media effects on voting behavior. Thus, researchers shifted from studying behavioral effects to cognitive effects. Priming, on the other hand, offers a different final outcome. Humans, priming researchers argue, are cognitive misers (Willnat, 1997)-they do not take all of their knowledge into account when facing a need for information. They create cognitive shortcuts, connecting the information need with previous stored information that is most readily available.

This study compared issue agendas and story focus at newspapers with relatively high percentages of women in editorial positions with those at newspapers with lower percentages of female editors. Content analysis of stories from thirty newspapers' Web sites showed few differences in issues covered, but differences in what male and female reporters covered related to the predominant editor gender. Newspapers with a high percentage of female editors appeared not to differentiate between male and female reporters when assigning beats, as is apparently the case at male-dominated newsrooms. Also, papers with predominately male editors contained news with a more negative focus.

The study extends agenda-setting research by examining issue diversity as a consequence of media exposure. Results from two surveys—one conducted in the United States, the other in Taiwan—illustrate differences in the cultures of the two samples. In general, older ...

A study of the relationships between the image of a country and media use is one of the most appropriate methods to gain knowledge on various stakeholders’ different perceptions of the country’s sustainability. Through an online survey of China’s post-90s generation, this paper first studies the respondents’ domestic image of China (including social, political, economic, and cultural images), second, their media use behaviors, and third, the relationships between their perceptions of China’s image and their behaviors. Based on the CFA model, with 16 items obtained from the survey data, the results of the empirical analysis indicated that China’s domestic image, as well as its political, economic, and cultural images, were generally neutral for the respondents, while they tended to disagree with the social image. Furthermore, neither traditional media use time nor new media use time of the respondents had any statistically significant influence on their perceptions of China’s image, ...

An agenda-building model was examined for the question of Africa and terrorism. A path analysis compared real-world events (deaths and attacks attributed to terrorism), presidential emphasis, media coverage, and foreign aid for African nations. Results show a clear agenda-building trend—when nations were emphasized with a terrorism frame. Presidential emphasis of nations ’ involvement in terrorism influenced media coverage and the policy agenda. The findings also suggest that deaths attributed to terrorism influenced the news and policy agendas. Media coverage of nations with a terrorism frame influenced the policy agenda. Only one significant path coefficient was found in the analysis of agenda setting without terrorism framing: The more President Bush mentioned a nation in his public statements, the more The New York Times covered the country. This study approaches the international counterterrorism effort as a form of political discourse controlled by the competing perspectives o...

A top-down communication model failed in an examination of news coverage and public opinion about the use of human embryos for stem cell research. The study covered three years leading to Bush's veto of a bill to remove research restrictions.

The agenda-setting function of the mass media was first established in the 1970s. Since then, research on agenda-setting has expanded to include six areas of research. The first category is the original hypothesis, which examines the cognitive effects of news on consumers. The second category, sources of the media agenda, concerns how competing actors in public debate affect public opinion and includes agenda-building research. The third category, the policy agenda, deals with the effect of news media on policy. The fourth category is contingent conditions, which explains circumstances that may affect the agenda-setting process. The fifth category is the second level, which shows that there is an affective component to the agenda-setting process. The sixth category investigates the function of the agenda-setting process in social media and the Internet. More recently, research has examined visual agenda-setting and the third level of the agenda-setting effect. Keywords: information processing and cognitions; mass communication theory; media and society; political communication; public opinion

Kuwaiti students intending to major in mass communication face a long process that begins in high school. A survey of students at Kuwait University examined whether the process led to disillusionment of the mass communication field and/or mass communication education. Findings show that all respondents viewed the field of journalism positively. Respondents also viewed journalism education in a positive light. Students majoring or minoring in journalism differed from majors in other disciplines in several ways: They were more likely to be female and younger, and were more likely to agree with statements that mass communication is a good field for women, journalists make a good living, the field is highly respected, and friends would support their decision to major in mass communication. This is a significant finding because it demonstrates that mass communications is considered a safe industry for women even when the role of women in the public sphere does not have many decades of precedent. The results also suggest that the more active the students were in selecting a major, the more positive they felt about mass communications education. Students who had published works or internship experience were more likely to declare a major in mass communications. All students agreed that their education increased their appreciation for the field of mass communications. These findings demonstrate that journalism education can be beneficial even in nations where the media system is not completely free.

Who could do that? One of the most polarizing moments in photojournalistic history, and misunderstandings surrounding that moment, inspire many people to wonder how Kevin Carter could take a photo of a famished girl crouched down to rest on her way to a feeding station and being watched by a vulture. The image is a lightning rod for critics who see news photographers as their own sort of vulture, profiting from human suffering. Kevin Carter, who won a Pulitzer Prize for the image in 1994, committed suicide a few months later (Keller, 1994). The photograph, the public’s response, and Carter’s life provide a rich, if tragic, intersection for considering just “who” photojournalists are, why they do what they do, and how they go about it.

ABSTRACT A yearly document produced by the Catholic Bishops in Argentina was compared to media coverage before and after its release. The document negatively correlated with media coverage in both time periods, with issues emphasized in the document appearing low on the media agenda. The top three issues in it, however, did receive more coverage after its release. The newspapers also displayed strong partisanship, with the newspaper most critical of the Church being the most negative.

ABSTRACT With growing pressure on higher education institutions (HEIs) because of decreasing student numbers and increasing demand on seeking external funds, emphasis on managing an institution’s reputation is higher than ever. As an important indicator of public relations’ impact on organizational performance, scholars suggest reputation as a tangible public relation (PR) outcome leading to financial performance. Agenda-building and agenda-setting research have been popularly examined in line of PR reputation research. However, little research has focused on integrating PR planning as the underlying factor of PR influence on reputation. To this end, the present study examined the relationships among resource-based PR information, media coverage and reputation through the theoretical lens of agenda-building and agenda-setting. Previous literature pertaining to strategy development explicated resources as an organization’s internal strength that enables an organization to succeed at environmental opportunities through prompt and effective responses. Taking this concept further to PR research, this study highlights the interplay of PR strategy based on the target public’s perceptions of an organization’s resources (eg, internal strengths such as human capital resources) and reputation.

Second level agenda setting offers a way of demonstrating the effects of news content by providing evidence that the attributes emphasized in news coverage become more salient in the minds of media consumers and more influential in terms of actual effects on opinions and attitudes. This exploratory study examines the substantive and affective attributes of the religion of Islam in coverage of 18 US newspapers and compares those attributes with results of a Gallup Center for Muslim Studies poll to determine whether a relationship exists between the coverage of Islam and public perception, as the second level of agenda setting suggests. Two hypotheses were tested. The results showed that attributes related to Islam were overwhelmingly covered in negative terms. However, the analysis of media coverage of attributes linked to the ‘object’ of Islam and public perceptions of Islam suggested little support for attribute agenda setting.

As the previous chapter noted, the cognitive effects of visual communication have received attention from researchers, though most of the attention has been relatively recent. The same could be said for attitudinal effects research, which has an equally rich tradition.

¡mimai of Broadcasting & Electronic Aler/M/Spring 2001 Agenda-Setting and Spanish Cable News Salma I. Ghanem and Wayne Wanta A survey conducted in McAllen, Texas, a largely Hispanic area, examined whether exposure to Spanish-language cable news had an ...

... p. cm. 1. Sports journalism. 2. Sports journalism–Authorship. I. Wanta, Wayne. II. Title. ... Athletic contests provide a level playing field for all. Retribution for a foul act is swift and (usually) fair. The playing surface has well-defined boundaries, and the rules are clear and concise. ...

This volume provides a comprehensive examination of key issues regarding global communication, focusing particularly on international news and strategic communication. It addresses those news factors that influence the newsworthiness of international events, providing a synthesis of both theoretical and practical studies that highlight the complicated nature of the international news selection process. It also deals with international news coverage, presenting research on the cross-national and cross-cultural nature of media ...

In today's multimedia environment, visuals are essential and expected parts of storytelling. While images may not be everything, they are a fundamental part of almost everything that goes on in the mass media. However, the visual communication research field is fragmented into several sub-areas, making study difficult. This book rectifies this issue by compiling research across different areas. Looking at topics such as the effects of viewing violence on television and analyses of the depictions of minority groups in newspaper photographs, Fahmy, Bock, and Wanta note trends across studies, tie together research across disciplines, and discuss the challenges of conducting analysis of images across print, broadcast, and online media. The book recieved a research excellence award for the most outstanding book in visual communication at the National Communication Association (NCA) in Chicago 2014.

ABSTRACT Using survey data from 2000 and 2007, this study examines individual-level variables influencing the hostile media perception (HMP). Specifically, the study explores how HMP in election coverage is determined based on people's political party identification and its strength, electoral engagement, and media use. HMP was greater for Republicans compared to Democrats in 2000 and 2007. Higher levels of partisanship as well as electoral engagement encouraged HMP.