Comparing Disaster News on Twitter and Television: an Intermedia Agenda Setting Perspective

Intermedia agenda setting predicts a high degree of convergence between news media agendas. However, the rise of social media forces a re-examination of this expectation. Using the 8.8-earthquake of February 27, 2010 in Chile as a case study, this article compares which topics were covered by professional journalists on broadcast news and Twitter, analyzing both cross-sectional and longitudinal trends. A positive, reinforcing influence was found among the journalistic agendas of TV and Twitter. However, counter to the idea that social media are echo chambers of traditional media, it was found that Twitter influences TV news more so than the other way around. Thus, the study provides an early lens into the agenda setting function of social media among television news professionals, and its findings are consistent with Twitter succeeding among journalists due to its provision of valuable information.     

Intermedia Attribute Agenda Setting in the Context of Issue-Focused Media Events

On April 24, 2015, Olympic gold medalist Caitlyn Jenner confirmed her transgender identity on the 20/20 Special: Bruce Jenner—The Interview with Diane Sawyer and started her own reality show, I am Cait. This study identifies patterns of second-level intermedia agenda setting in the framing of transgender issues, examining the extent to which Jenner’s high-profile planned media events about her gender transition influence how national print newspapers and television report transgender-related stories and the salience of certain story attributes. More specifically, through a comparative quantitative content analysis, this study found that transgender-related reports appearing after Jenner’s interview were more likely to (1) mention alternative non-binary gender discourses to highlight transgender subjectivity, (2) take the intersectionality perspective to address the complexity of transgender issues from the aspects of race, class, and sexuality differences, (3) differentiate transgender issues from LGB (lesbian, gay, and bisexual) issues, and (4) take in-depth approaches to report the stories.     

Intermedia Competition for Advertising in Small Daily Markets

A survey of 131 advertisers in the markets of six small daily newspapers revealed that the majority of advertisers were unknowledgeable about advertising conditions in their markets and that the majority of advertisers believed small dailies compete with other media for their advertising dollars. Unlike run-of-press (ROP) and local advertisers, insert and national advertisers tended to be knowledgeable about advertising. ROP advertisers cited both broadcast and other forms of print as competitors to dailies. Insert advertisers cited only other delivery vehicles as competitors.     

Advertising Content and Television Advertising Avoidance

This article proposes a new measure of television advertising avoidance, the Passive/Active Zap (PAZ), as an occurrence of a set-top box switching channels during a commercial break after at least 5 min of inactivity prior to the break. Twenty-seven percent of eligible commercial breaks are interrupted by a PAZ. A proportional hazards model is applied to a unique dataset to estimate the impact of advertising content and commercial break characteristics on PAZ behavior. The results show that advertising avoidance is negatively associated with movie ads and positively associated with advertising for websites, auto insurance and women’s clothing. Ad avoidance also tends to rise with repeated exposures to the same ad creative, advertising aired on general-interest television networks, later hours of the evening, and rainfall.     

Attention,Perception, and Perceived Effects: Negative Political Advertising in a Battleground State of the 2004 Presidential Election

Based on a statewide telephone survey before the 2004 presidential election, this study probes Ohioans' attention to and perception of campaign advertising and the perceived effects of those negative political ads. Citizens in this “battleground” state had a very high level of awareness of campaign advertising, characterizing it as more negative than in the past. Self-reported attention to the campaign and measured use of local and national television news were related to perceived campaign negativity. Evidence of a third-person effect regarding a specific type of negative advertising was found. However, the effect was moderated by candidate choice.     

Intermedia Agenda-Setting and Political Activism: MoveOn.org and the 2008 Presidential Election

This study tested for intermedia agenda-setting effects among explicitly partisan news media coverage and political activist group, citizen activist, and official campaign advertisements on YouTube—all in support of the same candidate. The setting for this investigation was the political activist organization MoveOn.org's “Obama in 30 Seconds” online ad contest, which was held during the 2008 U.S. presidential election primaries. The data provided evidence of first- and second-level agenda-setting relationships. Partial correlations revealed that the citizen activist issue agenda, as articulated in the contest ads, was most strongly related to the partisan media coverage, rather than to the issue priorities of the official Obama or MoveOn.org ads on YouTube. These results extend the intermedia agenda-setting framework to political activist communication efforts and consumer-generated content.     

Another Look at What Moves Public Opinion: Media Agenda Setting and Polls in the 2000 U.S. Election

This study examined two levels of media agenda effects on aggregatepublic opinion from different news sources. The effects wereinvestigated immediately and cumulatively. Content analysisdata from the 2000 U.S. presidential election coverage by fournational news organizations were related to the Gallup pre-electionpoll standings of each candidate. Regression analyses foundthat both the salience of a candidate and the salience of theattributes of a candidate cumulatively, but not immediately,influenced his standing in the polls. An analysis of news sourcessupported the finding that the two levels of agenda-settingeffects seemed mostly cumulative rather than immediate. Newsfrom different sources, however, tended to have effects of differentdegrees and sometimes different directions on candidate pollstandings. Cumulative effects of candidate salience on aggregateopinion change were found for non-partisan and neutral newssources—reporters, poll reporting and public documents—whereasthe effects of candidate attribute salience mostly came frompartisan sources—the candidate himself and members ofthe competing political party. Possible political implicationsof these findings are discussed.     

Negative Advertising Effects on Presidential Support Ratings During the 2012 Election: A Hierarchical Linear Modeling and Serial Dependency Study

In a literature where different research approaches generate inconsistent effects, we examine negative TV advertising effects on public support ratings of presidential candidates over time. Weekly national advertising and poll data from 2011 and 2012 were analyzed via (a) pooled time series analysis with growth curve modeling and (b) individual time serial dependency analysis with autoregressive integrated moving average. Study results support a social influence model derived from attribution theory, wherein negative TV ads did, in fact, influence poll results or public support ratings. In particular, spending on negative advertising increased the support for the sponsor of such ads. We also uncover a reciprocal effect of negative advertising between the competing candidates over time, such that spending on negative advertising attacking Mitt Romney predicted spending on advertising attacking Barack Obama in about 4 weeks at Lag 3 and Lag 4. Findings establishing the efficacy of negative advertising are discussed in the context of game theory.     

Agenda Setting and Priming Effects Based on Information Presentation: Revisiting Accessibility as a Mechanism Explaining Agenda Setting and Priming

In three experiments, this investigation evaluated the sufficiency of construct accessibility in explaining individual-level agenda setting and priming outcomes. Participants were exposed to an issue presented within a story from a respected news source (e.g., New York Times), a story from an unknown individual's blog, a story from a respected non-news organization (e.g., National Geographic), a crossword puzzle from a respected news source, or a crossword puzzle from an online game website. Story and crossword content was constant across the different sources. Participants responded either to a measure of implicit priming or to the traditional agenda setting question asking what the most important issue in the nation is. Priming effects were robust across presentation context, indicating a successful increase in temporary accessibility. Agenda setting effects were strongest when information came from news than from non-news sources, regardless of whether the issue was presented within a story or crossword. Findings suggest that issue salience in agenda setting is more appropriately conceptualized as perceived importance rather than top-of-mind awareness. News sources uniquely cue this salience beyond the abilities of other respected organizations.     

Voters' Attention,Perceived Effects,and Voting Preferences: Negative Political Advertising in the 2006 Ohio Governor's Election

A statewide survey (N = 564) before Ohio's 2006 gubernatorial election examined political interest, campaign news and advertising attention, and perceived effects of negative political ads. Interest was related to political and negative political advertising attention, which were in turn related to campaign news attention. Candidate preference predicted attention to political and negative political ads; attention to ads significantly predicted perceived effects on self and on others, whereas attention to negative ads significantly predicted third-person differential (other minus self). In addition, individuals polled in this survey admitted that attention to ads and negative ads was having comparable effects on both themselves and others. This finding may be due to the climate surrounding Ohio's gubernatorial race, which instilled a political importance and social desirability that abated the need to disown an effect of negative advertising on oneself.     

Testing Generational,Life Cycle,and Period Effects of Age on Agenda Setting

This study explores the relationship between age and the media's agenda-setting effects both by cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis. Using American National Election Studies surveys and the New York Times Index data from 1960 to 2004, we test three possible effects of age on the agenda-setting process: generational, life-cycle, and period effects. Findings show the public agenda is fairly stable across generations and age cohorts despite increasing signs of media diversification and audience specialization. More important, different generations’ agendas were overall correlated with the media agenda in each year, indicating robust agenda-setting effects of the media on the public, except for baby boomers. The findings generally support the hypothesis of period effects. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

议程设置理论在突发灾难性事件报道中的运用

在即将结束的2010年间,我国在科技、文化、社会发展等各个重要方面取得了长足的进步,但我们也经历了许多重大的突发灾难事故,带来人员和财产的惨痛损失。在这样的灾难面前,作为新闻媒介不单承担着迅速、准确、如实报道的责任,更有必要肩负正确引导,客观分析的作用。     

Shaping the Agenda of Local Daily Newspapers: A Methodology Merging the Agenda Setting and Community Structure Perspectives

Community structure research investigates the influence of the local community and specific demographic groups in the community on the degree of emphasis that particular public issues receive in a local newspaper. In contrast to this internal source of influence, intermedia agenda setting emphasizes the external influence of other news media and the national journalistic culture on the news decisions of local daily newspapers. To invoke a cliché, the agenda-setting and community structure perspectives are opposite sides of the same coin and should be considered in tandem. The research design and procedure for statistical analysis presented here, which involves the simultaneous investigation of the influence resulting from community structure and intermedia agenda setting, is a path for new research that can present a detailed explication of the balance between local and national influence on the issue agenda of local daily newspapers.     

Campaign Agenda Formation: The News Media in the Korean Congressional Election of 2000

The present study, as an international application of an agenda-setting model, investigates how campaign agendas of issues are constructed in an election. The Korean Congressional election of 2000 provided rich empirical data for this study; the political party agenda, the civic agenda, and the news agenda were measured in terms of issue salience at two different data points in time during the official campaign period. The results of the cross-lagged rank-order correlations between different agendas indicated the following. First, the party agenda as a whole had little impact on the formation of the news agenda. The party–news relationship, however, showed a different pattern at an individual newspaper level. Specifically, a more conservative newspaper was more susceptible to those parties’ agenda-setting than was its progressive rival. Second, a nationwide civic movement for political reforms slightly influenced the formation of the news agenda, especially that of the reformist newspaper agenda. Both newspapers, on the other hand, substantially influenced the civic campaign's issue emphases. Finally, there existed no significant interactions between the party and the civic agendas.     

No Joke: A Comparison of Substance in The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Broadcast Network Television Coverage of the 2004 Presidential Election Campaign

This study examined substantive political coverage of the first presidential debate and the political conventions in 2004 on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the broadcast television networks' nightly newscasts. The study found the networks' coverage to be more hype than substance and coverage on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to be more humor than substance. The amount of substantive information in The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the broadcast network newscasts was the same, regardless of whether the unit of analysis was news stories about the presidential election campaign or the entire half-hour program.     

The Impact of Market Segmentation on African American Frequency,Centrality, and Status in Television Advertising

Market segmentation made communication with the advertising audience dependent upon the audience segment. African Americans were the first racial minority group identified as having economic viability as a target market that could be reached through advertising content and placement. A content analysis of 358 prime-time television advertisements for African American and general audiences revealed that African Americans are still playing a subordinate role, even in advertising targeted to them. Market segmentation has increased the breadth, but not necessarily the depth of African American advertising depictions.     

Context and Sources in Broadcast Television Coverage of the 2004 Democratic Primary

This study examined context variables (reporter speculation, multiple viewpoints, and story emphasis) and source variables (anonymous sources and source transparency) in broadcast television coverage of the 2004 Democratic presidential primaries. Primary coverage was compared with coverage of other major stories. Primary coverage was no more focused on conflict than were other major stories. Primary coverage was, however, more focused on winners and losers, and primary reporting was more likely to include reporter speculation. Primary stories were just as likely to include anonymous sources as were other major stories, but primary stories also were more likely than other major stories to fully identify sources.