ABSTRACT
The recent explication of network agenda setting suggests a more complicated role of news media influence on public opinion (Guo & McCombs, 2011a, 2011b; Guo, 2013). While helpful for increasing our understanding of news media effects, third-level agenda setting also has important implications for other arenas of scholarship, such as public relations and strategic communication. Indeed, the ability of professional communicators to connect elements for advocacy, engagement and/or persuasive purposes may be the most powerful role of the Network Agenda Setting (NAS) Model to date. Grounded in an agenda-building perspective, the purpose of this chapter is to explain the conceptual foundations of such an approach, identify early empirical work on the topic and discuss the implications for theory building going forward. Finally, it suggests fruitful areas for future research to expand upon the explication.
