The Contingency of the Mass Media's Political Agenda Setting Power: Toward a Preliminary Theory

TLDR

The relationship between media and political agenda has attracted growing scholarly attention, yet no general theory exists, and media agenda setting is contingent on multiple conditions. This article analytically confronts contradictory evidence and sketches a broad outline of a preliminary theory. The model identifies input variables—issue type, media outlet, coverage style—and political context variables such as actor features, predicting five levels of political adoption from none to rapid substantial uptake.

Abstract

Recently the study of the relationship between the media and the political agenda has received growing attention of both media and political science scholars. However, these research efforts have not led to a general discussion or a real theory on the media's political agenda setting power. This article first analytically confronts the often contradictory results of the available evidence. Then, it sketches the broad outline of a preliminary theory. Political agenda setting by the media is contingent upon a number of conditions. The input variables of the model are the kind of issues covered, the specific media outlet, and the sort of coverage. Political context variables, the features of the political actors at stake, are at the heart of the model. The model proposes five sorts of output ranging from no political adoption to fast substantial adoption of media issues.