Browsing by Subject "Agenda-setting"
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Item Agenda-setting effect of the media in Bangladesh(2011-12) Shafi, Ashik; Zhang, Weiwu; Seltzer, Trent; Wilkinson, KentonThe agenda-setting effect of the media is one of the most established and widely studied theories of mass communication. Since first outlined in 1972, the theory has been the topic of numerous studies and articles. Mostly the theory has been tested in developed countries. Scholars had previously urged for testing of mass communication theories in developing countries for more universal understanding of the mass media. This thesis studied the agenda-setting theory in Bangladesh as an effort of studying media effects in developing countries. The thesis applied survey and content analysis to collect data. The survey was done in Bangladesh and data was gathered from 418 respondents, while the content analysis gathered data from a sample of the country’s newspapers. In analyzing the results, this study determined the Spearman Rho correlation coefficient and found no evidence of the basic agenda-setting effect of the media. There was no evidence of the agenda-setting effect on audience groups based on different demographics and levels of media usage, interpersonal communication and media credibility either. The thesis concluded that scholars need to study the theory more in developing countries using a variety of research methods and exploring different kinds of conceptual definitions. Theorists also need to take complex social and political scenario of the developing countries needs to into account.Item Contagious agendas : the spread of issue attention in the policy process(2015-08) Thomas, Herschel Fred III; Jones, Bryan D.; Baumgartner, Frank R; Wlezien, Chris; Roberts, Brian E; Theriault, Sean MThis dissertation is a study of contagion effects in policymaking. The policy process behaves in many ways like a complex system, which is characterized by communication among actors, dynamic interaction, and evolution in behavior over time. As a result, the attention of policy elites rapidly jumps from issue to issue as they struggle to address an array of pressing issues and problems simultaneously. I argue that a process of issue contagion explains these rapid changes as policy elites are highly interdependent actors who are subject to cognitive limits, have incentives to closely monitor the political environment, and frequently mimic the behavior of their peers. Drawing on the methods of computational social science, I build a simulation model of agenda-setting behavior and examine issue contagion through an experimental research design. I test the empirical implications of the model by applying it to real-world datasets—from the disclosed lobbying activity of organized interests to the bill introductions of members of Congress. The core contribution of the project is that patterns in attention to policy issues are a function of a contagion process generated by cue-taking behavior among elites.Item Effects of two different motivations on agenda-setting : NFO, motivated reasoning, and the second level of agenda-setting(2013-12) Lee, Na Yeon; McCombs, Maxwell E.; Coleman, RenitaThis dissertation seeks to understand how the need for orientation (NFO) and motivated reasoning influence the agenda-setting process at the level of the individual by examining whether and to what extent the two types of motivations guide individuals to process information differently, thereby resulting in differences in the second level of agenda-setting effects. The first motivation, the need for orientation (NFO), was developed as part of the agenda-setting theory in communication studies, while the other set of motivations (i.e., accuracy and directional goals) was introduced by the theory of motivated reasoning that was developed in the field of psychology. By combining the two motivations - NFO and motivated reasoning - this study demonstrated that the role of NFO on the agenda setting process was moderated by motivated reasoning, accuracy and directional goals. In other words, participants with High-NFO who used accuracy goals that motivated them to seek information in accurate ways searched for more news about unemployment which was manipulated as the most salient attribute. Their information seeking behaviors, in turn, led to higher agenda-setting effects. By comparison, participants with High-NFO who used directional goals to seek information that was congruent with their prior perspectives or perceptions were less likely to seek information about unemployment and showed lower agenda-setting effects. Overall, the findings of this study suggest that individuals’ motivation to seek more information about an issue (NFO) may not always result in higher agenda-setting effects: if their motivations are biased by strong prior perceptions or perspectives, then their eagerness to seek information may blind them to what the media cover. Individuals’ motivations are expected to play an increasingly important role in their information seeking behaviors in the new media environment where people have unprecedented opportunities to access a broad range of information that varies in content as well as perspectives. Implications for the findings of this study and for the role of the media in a democratic society are also discussed.