Issue Public Membership as a Mediating Factor in the Individual Agenda-Setting Process

• In Event: Advances in Agenda Setting Research

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the role of the individual media agenda and issue public membership in the agenda-setting process in a theoretical model and test this model for five issues, based on media content analysis of 28 news outlets and a panel study of 2,456 respondents in the context of a national election. The findings of the path models show, first, that the public agenda is quite stable. Second, the influence of the media agenda on the public’s personal issue agenda is mediated through the involvement with a particular issue – i.e. issue public membership.

Authors

• Ramona Vonbun, University of Vienna

• Katharina Kleinen-von Knigslw, U of Vienna