Beyond Salience Transmission: Linking Agenda Networks Between Media and Voters

摘要

This study investigated the network agenda setting (NAS) model with data gathered from Taiwan's 2012 presidential election. Networks of important objects and candidate attributes in the news were compared with the counterparts generated from public opinion. The overall correlation between the media and public network agendas was positive and significant, thus supporting the NAS model in a non-Western context. In addition, this study found that the NAS model offered more predictive power at the attribute than the object level. The effects of selective exposure in a partisan media system were also incorporated into the investigation. Results showed that partisan selective exposure did not lead to consistent findings about the accentuated association between like-minded media consumption and candidate evaluation.