Convergence of Agenda Setting and Attitude Change Approaches : Media Effects and the Interaction between Media Messages, the Nature of Reality Underlying Media Issues and Mechanisms of Information

ISBN-13: 9783639128307 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 132 str.

Gennadiy Chernov

Opis

Agenda setting shows that people perceive asimportant those issues, which are covered by themedia more frequently. Recently, agenda-settingscholars started to explore the link betweenagenda-setting and attitude change. This study testswhether experience with issues and specificity ofmessages lead to both agenda-setting and attitudinaleffects. This study tested whether the ElaborationLikelihood Model (the ELM) complements priming inbringing about agenda-setting and attitudinaleffects. Findings indicate that reading the storiesleads to the heightened issue importance for theissues with which individuals do not have directexperience. Attitude favorability towards issuesincreases if individuals do not have direct personalexperience with it, and if a story about it containedgeneral attributes.For the ELM variables, lower levelof knowledge about issues lead to higher issue perceived importance. Knowledge and elaboration affect the overall attitude favorability. This study develops an explanatory mechanism why agenda setting takes place. The analysis should be useful for scholars and professionals interested in agenda setting theory.

O autorze

Gennadiy Chernov, born in 1964, an assistant professor at the
School of Journalism, University of Regina, Canada
M.A. (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Ph. D. (University of Oregon).