Media Agenda-Setting and Personal Influences in the Promotion of National Issues

摘要

The purpose of this thesis was to further investigate the agenda-setting function of mass media, in particular to attempt an explanation for studies which show media influences on public agendas while others have found no such results. Basically, this thesis suggested that a limited agenda-setting effect exists. It did not cast complete doubt on the existence of a correlation between the content of media agendas with what eventually ends up on public agendas, but it challenged views of agenda-setting as an uninhibited social impact. This position was tested by applying some of the numerous recommendations for further research that have appeared in the studies discussed in the literature review portion of this study.