How Does the Content and Structure of Television News Affect the Perceived Importance of Issues among the Czech Public?

Abstract

The authors empirically explore whether and to what extent the content and thematic structure of television news infl uence the perceived importance of an issue among the population. They present several methodological and conceptual innovations to traditional agenda-setting research. First, they utilise a data set that is somewhat unique in the Czech scientifi c community. It was constructed by combining data from repeated public opinion surveys and from content analysis of television news; both segments were collected over a period of more than four years. Unlike in most research, the data are not aggregated before the analysis. Second, the authors' choice of issue overcomes the problem of endogeneity that is ubiquitous in agenda-setting research. Third, the authors employ hierarchical linear models to represent adequately the multi-level and clustered data structure and to obtain unbiased estimates of model parameters. Finally, in addition to using standard measures of the intensity of media exposure, they utilise a rather unique set of explanatory variables that represent the homogeneity of media coverage and the relative salience of the issue. They conclude that the media salience of an issue does indeed increase its perceived importance among the population, but media homogeneity and relative salience induce no effect on perceived importance. Owing to a number of methodological improvements, the authors' results are more robust than those produced in previous research.

Distraction in road traffic: How Czech media covers the issue

“…The media seems to have an important role, given that risk perception is at least partially formed by education and public awareness [ 22 ]. The intensity of media coverage for a certain issue has been proven to seed its perceived importance among the public [ 33 ]. Some of the previous research papers observed that media coverage can increase public awareness [ 38 , 39 ] and may result in behavioural change [ 40 ].…”

“…It is advisable to highlight not only the use of a mobile phone but also other non-driving related activities (interaction with in-vehicle technologies). Emphasizing leading causes of death is necessary to avoid a distorted public perception of health threats [ 23 , 28 , 30 , 33 ].…”

“…According to McCombs [ 32 ], there is no discernible difference in the agenda-setting influence of various media. Kalvas and Kreidl [ 33 ] conclude that the media salience of an issue increases its perceived importance among the population. Their research included media homogeneity and the relative salience of an issue, among other aspects, but none of these induced an effect on the perceived importance of the issue, which supports the assumption that only the intensity of the media presentation influences the public perception of the topic.…”