The Contingency of Intermedia Agenda Setting: A Longitudinal Study in Belgium

Abstract

This large-scale study investigates how intermedia agenda-setting effects are moderated by five factors: (1) lag length; (2) medium type; (3) language/institutional barriers; (4) issue type; and (5) election or non-election context. Longitudinal analyses of daily attention to twenty-five issues in nine Belgian media across eight years demonstrate that (1) intermedia agenda setting is mainly a short-term process; (2) newspapers have stronger influence on television than vice versa; (3) language/institutional barriers suppress influence; (4) size of influence differs across types of issues; and (5) intermedia agenda setting is largely absent during election times.