ABSTRACT
Agenda setting is the process of the mass media presenting certain issues frequently and prominently with the result that large segments of the public come to perceive those issues as more important than others. Simply put, the more coverage an issue receives, the more important it is to people. Since this fi rst simple defi nition of the phenomenon, agenda setting has expanded from a theory describing the transfer of issue salience from the news media to the public to a broader theory that includes a “second-level” describing the transfer of attribute salience for those issues and many other “objects” such as political fi gures. Also, inter-media agenda setting explains how elite media transmit their agenda of important issues to other media. Agenda-setting research has stimulated debates about priming and framing; explications of obtrusiveness and the “need for orientation” that defi nes the conditions under which agenda-setting effects are enhanced or diminished; and, most recently, explorations of the implications of agenda-setting effects for attitudes and opinions and observable behavior. Agenda setting has proved to be a theory that is both deep and wide, applicable for more than the 30-year lifespan that is the mark of a useful theory. It has been called the theory “most worth pursuing” of mass communication theories (Blumler & Kavanagh, 1999, p. 225).
