Advancing Agenda-Setting Theory: The Comparative Strength and New Contingent Conditions of the Two Levels of Agenda-Setting Effects

Abstract

Survey and content analysis data from the 2004 presidential election were used to examine relative strength of first- and second-level agenda setting. Second-level candidate attributes exert a stronger agenda-setting influence on the public than does the salience of issues. More striking is the difference in effect sizes on voting intention. Respondents' perception of candidates' traits has a stronger agenda-setting effect and is a better predictor of voting intention than candidates' issues stance. Additionally, a new contingent condition for second-level effects was confirmed: negative information has more power to transfer the media's agenda of candidate attributes to the public.

What Follows What? Relations between Economic Indicators, Economic Expectations of the Public, and News on the General Economy and Unemployment in Germany, 2002-2011

“…35 Wu and Coleman 36 and Hester and Gibson, 37 using the examples of presidential candidates and the economy respectively, show that negative information has a more powerful public agenda-setting effect than does positive information. Wu et al 38 reveal that, in a recession, news has a stronger effect than the real economic situation on public expectations.…”

Agenda Building and Agenda Setting in Business: Corporate Reputation Attributes

“…Wu and Coleman (2010) found stronger secondlevel agenda-setting relationships exploring the strength of first-and second-level agenda setting influence on behavioral outcomes. The results of this current study are consistent with the aforementioned investigation.…”

Formación de la agenda pública sobre temas experienciales en Santiago de Cuba durante el año 2015

“…La acción e interacción de las personas en busca de informaciones que satisfagan sus necesidades, la concomitancia entre el grado de interés por determinados asuntos, los procesos de construcción simbólica en sus diferentes escalas y la existencia cada vez mayor de mecanismos de intercambio de conocimiento, han rubricado las bases de formación de la agenda pública (McCombs & Shaw, 1993;Casermeiro, 2004;Wu & Coleman, 2009;McCombs & Valenzuela, 2014;Potthoff, 2016).…”

“…Otro elemento que debemos destacar, en este sentido, es que la mayor parte de los estudios que miden la agenda pública se han realizado en contextos electorales (Wu & Coleman, 2009), lo que puede marcar una diferencia respecto a investigaciones de otra naturaleza (Boczkowski & Mitchelstein, 2015).…”