Maxwell McCombs - Setting the Agenda

1 Dedication Dedication For Betsy Maxwell McCombs For Tere, Simón, Camilo, and Santiago Sebastián Valenzuela

2 Title page Setting the Agenda The News Media and Public Opinion Third Edition Maxwell McCombs Sebastián Valenzuela polity

3 Copyright page

4 Boxes

5 Foreword: ‘Messages and Residues’ Donald L. Shaw and David H. Weaver

6 Preface Notes

7 1 Influencing Public Opinion Our pictures of the world Contemporary empirical evidence The accumulated evidence The 1972 US presidential election in Charlotte The 1976 US presidential election in three communities National concern about civil rights British and American concern about foreign affairs Public opinion in Germany Agenda setting in a Swedish election Public opinion in Louisville Local public opinion in Spain, Japan, and Argentina Replication with other issues Cause and effect A new communication landscape 1. Do online media have agenda-setting effects among the public? 2. Has the proliferation of online media diminished the agenda-setting impact of the traditional media? 3. To what extent are there specific channel effects vs. the collective impact of a communication gestalt? Summing up Notes

8 2 Reality and the News Idiosyncratic pictures A decade of American public opinion Creating a crisis National concern about drugs Fear of crime Discovering the environment Alarmed discovery Perspectives on agenda-setting effects Content versus exposure Agenda setting in past centuries Summing up Notes

9 3 The Pictures in our Heads Pictures of political candidates Candidate images in national elections Candidate images in local elections Visual images and attributes Attributes of issues Compelling arguments Agenda setting and other communication theories Attribute agenda setting and framing Summing up Notes

10 4 Networks of Issues and Attributes Associative memory Networks of candidates and attributes Accumulated evidence on network agenda setting A new gestalt perspective Summing Up Notes

11 5 Why Agenda Setting Occurs Relevance and uncertainty Occurrence of agenda-setting effects Relevance Personal experience with public issues Individual differences Incidental learning Agenda-melding Summing up Notes

12 6 How Agenda Setting Works Carrying capacity of the public agenda Diversity and volatility of the public agenda Education and agenda setting Explaining the transfer of salience Timeframe for effects Diversity of salience measures Summing up Notes

13 7 Shaping the Media Agenda The president and the national agenda Subsidizing the media agenda Capturing the media agenda Three election agendas Media agendas in local elections Attributes of local issues Three elements of elections A broader portrait Intermedia agenda setting Summing up Notes

14 8 Consequences of Agenda Setting Priming public opinion Attribute agendas and opinions Forming opinions Influencing behaviour Agenda setting role of business news Summing up Notes

15 9 Communication and Society Transmission of culture New agenda-setting arenas Other cultural agendas Concepts, domains, and settings Continuing evolution of agenda-setting theory Notes

16 Bibliography

17 Index

18 End User License Agreement

1 Cover

2 Contents

3 1 Influencing Public Opinion

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For Betsy

Maxwell McCombs

For Tere, Simón, Camilo, and Santiago

Sebastián Valenzuela

Third Edition

Maxwell McCombs

Sebastián Valenzuela

polity

Copyright © Maxwell McCombs and Sebastián Valenzuela 2021

The right of Maxwell McCombs and Sebastián Valenzuela to be identified as Authors of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2004 by Polity Press

This edition published in 2021 by Polity Press

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