Candidate Images in Spanish Elections: Second-Level Agenda-Setting Effects

Abstract

Traditional agenda-setting theory is about the influence of mass media on the public's focus of attention, who and what people are thinking about. The expanded theory of agenda setting tested here during the 1995 regional and municipal elections in Spain elaborates the influence of the mass media on how people think about persons and topics in the news. Combining content analysis and survey data, this study documents the influence of newspapers, TV news, and both TV and newspaper political advertising on Spanish voters' images of political candidates.