ABSTRACT
McCombs (2014, p. 3), paraphrasing Lippmann, observed that “the news media, our windows to the vast world beyond direct experience, determine our cognitive maps of that world.” As the metaphor “cognitive maps” implies, agenda-setting theory suggests that the news media are one of the factors that can influence the audience’s network-like mental structure (Guo, 2013). In the new research focused on the Network Agenda Setting (NAS) Model, the literature thus far has primarily focused on the network as a whole. I suggest that the application of network analysis and the attractiveness of such a paradigm shift within agenda-setting studies may mean that we have sped past some of the necessary work in laying out the contours of the NAS Model—those of uniplex and duplex relationships. Uniplex relationships, in particular, have long dominated the literature on network theory, and scholars in the area have long advocated a move to the study of complete networks. But that is not where media effects research, and in particular agenda-setting theory, is at this moment.
