Setting the Agenda
Mass Media and Public Opinion
2nd Edition
Published on 31. January 2014
Book
Hardback
208 pages
978-0-7456-6109-4 (ISBN)
Description
Setting the Agenda describes the mass media's significant and sometimes controversial role in determining which topics are at the centre of public attention and action. In this new edition of his comprehensive book, Max McCombs, one of the founding fathers of the agenda-setting tradition of research, extends his previous synthesis of hundreds of studies carried out on this central role of the mass media in the shaping of public opinion.
Across the world, the mass media strongly influences how we picture public affairs. In describing this media influence on what we think about and how we think about it, Setting the Agenda also discusses the sources of these media agendas, the psychological explanation for their impact on the public agenda, and the subsequent consequences for attitudes, opinions and behaviour. New to this edition, McCombs debates the role of the expanded media landscape on agenda setting, the impact of the internet on the power of legacy media and the role of agenda setting beyond the realm of public affairs,
This fully updated new edition will prove invaluable to students of media, communications and politics, as well as those interested in the role of mass media in shaping and directing public opinion.
Across the world, the mass media strongly influences how we picture public affairs. In describing this media influence on what we think about and how we think about it, Setting the Agenda also discusses the sources of these media agendas, the psychological explanation for their impact on the public agenda, and the subsequent consequences for attitudes, opinions and behaviour. New to this edition, McCombs debates the role of the expanded media landscape on agenda setting, the impact of the internet on the power of legacy media and the role of agenda setting beyond the realm of public affairs,
This fully updated new edition will prove invaluable to students of media, communications and politics, as well as those interested in the role of mass media in shaping and directing public opinion.
Reviews / Votes
"This second edition of Setting the Agenda continues the exploration and elaboration of the original concept of media agenda setting into a complex and useful theory of the relationships of media, public and policy agendas. It is a comprehensive and readable overview of hundreds of studies on this subject. Beautifully written and clearly organized, it is the definitive work on agenda setting by one of the founders of this branch of empirical research." David H. Weaver, Indiana University "This book illustrates the wide applicability of media agenda-setting theory, nicely organizing research findings from different democracies across the world. In this edition, readers will recognize that agenda-setting continues to be an insightful research paradigm even in the age of new media." Toshio Takeshita, Meiji UniversityMore details
Other editions
New editions
Book
11/2020
3rd Edition
Polity Press
€65.00
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Additional editions
Book
01/2014
2nd Edition
Polity Press
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Person
Max McCombs is Jesse H. Jones Centennial Chair in Communication at the School of Journalism, University of Texas at Austin.
Content
Dedication
Title page
Copyright page
Boxes
Preface
1: Influencing Public Opinion
Our pictures of the world
Contemporary empirical evidence
The accumulated evidence
Cause and effect
A new communication landscape
Summing up
2: Reality and the News
Idiosyncratic pictures
Perspectives on agenda-setting effects
Content versus exposure
Agenda-setting in past centuries
Summing up
3: The Pictures in our Heads
Pictures of political candidates
Candidate images in national elections
Candidate images in local elections
Media influence on candidate images
Attributes of issues
Attributes of environmental issues
Media influence on issue attributes
Compelling arguments
A third level of agenda-setting
Attribute agenda-setting and framing
Summing up
4: Why Agenda-Setting Occurs
Relevance and uncertainty
Occurrence of agenda-setting effects
Relevance
Personal experience with public issues
Individual differences, media use and agenda-setting
Summing up
5: How Agenda-Setting Works
Evolution of issue agendas
Explaining the transfer of salience
Timeframe for effects
Diversity of salience measures
Summing up
6: Consequences of Agenda-Setting
Priming public opinion
Attribute agendas and opinions
Forming opinions Attitudes, opinions and behaviour
Agenda-setting role of business news
Summing up
7: Shaping the Media Agenda
The president and the national agenda
Subsidizing the media agenda
Capturing the media agenda
Three election agendas
Media agendas in local elections
Attributes of local issues
Three elements of elections
A broader portrait
Intermedia agenda-setting
Summing up
8: Mass Communication and Society
Transmission of culture
New agenda-setting arenas
Other cultural agendas
Concepts, domains, and settings
Continuing evolution of agenda-setting theory
Epilogue: Media Agenda-Setting and Audience Agenda-Melding
Political agenda-melding
Our need for community agenda-melding
Bibliography
Index
Title page
Copyright page
Boxes
Preface
1: Influencing Public Opinion
Our pictures of the world
Contemporary empirical evidence
The accumulated evidence
Cause and effect
A new communication landscape
Summing up
2: Reality and the News
Idiosyncratic pictures
Perspectives on agenda-setting effects
Content versus exposure
Agenda-setting in past centuries
Summing up
3: The Pictures in our Heads
Pictures of political candidates
Candidate images in national elections
Candidate images in local elections
Media influence on candidate images
Attributes of issues
Attributes of environmental issues
Media influence on issue attributes
Compelling arguments
A third level of agenda-setting
Attribute agenda-setting and framing
Summing up
4: Why Agenda-Setting Occurs
Relevance and uncertainty
Occurrence of agenda-setting effects
Relevance
Personal experience with public issues
Individual differences, media use and agenda-setting
Summing up
5: How Agenda-Setting Works
Evolution of issue agendas
Explaining the transfer of salience
Timeframe for effects
Diversity of salience measures
Summing up
6: Consequences of Agenda-Setting
Priming public opinion
Attribute agendas and opinions
Forming opinions Attitudes, opinions and behaviour
Agenda-setting role of business news
Summing up
7: Shaping the Media Agenda
The president and the national agenda
Subsidizing the media agenda
Capturing the media agenda
Three election agendas
Media agendas in local elections
Attributes of local issues
Three elements of elections
A broader portrait
Intermedia agenda-setting
Summing up
8: Mass Communication and Society
Transmission of culture
New agenda-setting arenas
Other cultural agendas
Concepts, domains, and settings
Continuing evolution of agenda-setting theory
Epilogue: Media Agenda-Setting and Audience Agenda-Melding
Political agenda-melding
Our need for community agenda-melding
Bibliography
Index