The Public and the National Agenda: How People Learn About Important Issues

by Wayne Wanta

Overview

Focusing on the agenda-setting function of the news media from an information processing standpoint, this volume examines how individuals expose themselves to news media content and how this content translates into issue salience. It utilizes the individual as the unit of measurement. Many agenda-setting studies have used the issue, rather than the individual, as the unit of measurement. By employing an "agenda-setting susceptibility" index, the book details how individuals who actively process information in the news media are most susceptible to agenda-setting effects. Merging agenda-setting with research in information processing and uses and gratifications, it proposes and tests a causal model of media agenda-setting influences by examining demographics, psychological factors, and behavioral variables of individuals.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781000949377
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/09/2023
Series:	ISSN
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	132
File size:	621 KB

About the Author

Wayne Wanta

Table of Contents

Contents: Preface. Theoretical Underpinnings of the Agenda-Setting Process. The Agenda-Setting Susceptibility Measure. Effects of Demographic and Psychological Variables on Agenda Setting. Effects of Behavioral Variables on Agenda Setting. Putting It All Together: How the Agenda-Setting Process Works. Effects of Different Media on Agenda Setting. The Role of Nonmedia Sources in the Agenda-Setting Process. Expanding the Agenda-Setting Hypothesis. Social Learning in the Agenda-Setting Process. References.

Editorial Reviews

"...a useful perspective for journalism students, journalism educators, and media practitioners, all of whom need to understand agenda setting. The good job of backgrounding the author does will help them understand....an extremely important addition to the literature of agenda setting."
—Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly

From the Publisher