Cover not available

Article published In: Fifty years of agenda-setting research: Volume II
Edited by Chris J. Vargo
[The Agenda Setting Journal 3:1] 2019
► pp. 63–81

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Philosophical orientations and theoretical frameworks in media effects

Agenda setting, priming and their comparison with framing

 | University of Regina
 | The University of Texas at Austin
Published online: 2 January 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/asj.18016.che
Abstract
This paper explores the philosophical orientations within which agenda setting operates, and agenda setting’s place within the broader framework of the media effects tradition, specifically in comparison with framing and priming. It also responds to earlier criticisms of agenda setting for its supposed lack of theoretical richness and narrowly understood underlying mechanisms.
Both ontological and epistemological statuses of the agenda-setting theory are analyzed in order to place agenda setting into the communication discipline’s broader context. This paper demonstrates that the most important distinction between framing and agenda setting is that they are based on different ways of knowing. While the epistemological bases of priming are similar to the theory of agenda setting, the paper argues that further progress will depend not only on practical studies of different aspects of agenda setting, but also on theoretical and philosophical conceptualizations in the future.
Article outline
  • Assumptions underlying agenda setting
  • Agenda setting and ontological and epistemological aspects of its philosophical orientation
  • Agenda setting theory status
  • Agenda setting and framing
  • Priming
  • Conclusion
  • References
References (49)
References
Anderson, J. & Baym. (2004). Philosophies and philosophic issues in communication, 1995–2004. Journal of Communication, 54(4), 589–615.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Berger, C. R., Roloff, M. E., & Roskos-Ewoldsen, D. R. (2010). What is communication science? In C. R. Berger, M. E. Roloff, D. R. Roskos-Ewoldsen (Eds.), The handbook of communication science (2nd ed., pp. 3–20). Los Angeles, CA: Sage. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Berger, P. & Luckmann, T. (1966). Social construction of reality. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bouchard, Y. (2007). The foundationalism-coherentism opposition revisited: The case for complementarism. Foundations of Science, 12(4), 325–336. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bryant, J. & Miron, D. (2004). Theory and research in mass communication. Journal of Communication, 54(4), 662–704. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cacciatore, M., Scheufele, D. & Iyengar, S. (2016). The end of framing as we know it … and the future of media effects, Mass Communication and Society, 19(1), 7–23. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Camaj, L., & Weaver, D. H. (2013). Need for orientation and attribute agenda-setting during a US election campaign. International Journal of Communication, 71, 22.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chernov, G. (2018). Priming as a process and as a function in agenda setting. Studies in Media and Communication, 6(1), 32–40. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
D’Angelo, P. (2002). News framing as a multiparadigmatic research program: A response toEntman. Journal of Communication, 521, 870–888. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
D’Angelo, P. & Kuypers, J. (eds) (2010). Doing news framing analysis. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eicher-Catt, D. (2016). Ontology. In The international encyclopedia of communication theory and philosophy (Vol. 21, pp. 1381–1388). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Entman, R. M. (1993). Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm. Journal of Communication, 43(4), 51–58. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Funk, M. & McCombs, M. (2017). Strangers on a theoretical train. Journalism Studies, 18, 7, 845–865. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Guo, L., & McCombs, M. (Eds.). (2015). The power of information networks: New directions for agenda setting (Vol. 81). New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harré, R. (1986). Varieties of realism: A rationale for the natural sciences. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hansson, S. (2007). The false dichotomy between coherentism and foundationalism. The Journal of Philosophy, 104(6), 290–300. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Higgins, E. T. (1996). Knowledge activation: Accessibility, applicability, and salience. In E. T. Higgins & A. W. Kruglanski (Eds.), Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles (pp. 133–168). New York, NY, US: Guilford.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Higgins, E. T., & Eitam, B. (2014). Priming… Shmiming: it’s about knowing when and why stimulated memory representations become active. Social Cognition, 321(Supplement), 225–242. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Iyengar, S., & Kinder, D. (1987). News that matters: Agenda-setting and priming in a television age. University Of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kanazawa, Satoshi. (1998). In defense of unrealistic assumptions. Sociological Theory, 16(2), 193–204. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kassirer, Ė. (1998). Izbrannoe; Opyt o cheloveke. Gardarika.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kirtiklis, K. (2011). Not by communication alone. Epistemology and methodology as typological criteria of communication theories. Informacijos Mokslai/Information Sciences, (58), 42–55Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kosicki, G. M. (1993). Problems and opportunities in agenda-setting research. Journal of Communication, 43(2), 100–127. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kukla, A. (2013). Social constructivism and the philosophy of science. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakatos, I. (1976). Falsification and the methodology of scientific research programmes. In Can theories be refuted? (pp. 205–259). Springer, Dordrecht. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lam, S. (2010). What kind of assumptions need to be realistic and how to test them: A response to Tsang (2006). Strat. Mgmt. J., 311: 679–687Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lippmann, W. (2004). Public opinion. Dover Publications, Minnesota, New York.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McCombs, M. E. (2014). Setting the agenda: The mass media and public opinion. Cambridge, UK: Polity.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McCombs, M. and Reynolds, A. (2009). How the news shapes our civic agenda. Media effects: advances in theory and research, Third Edition. New York: Routledge, 1–16.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McCombs, M. E., & Shaw, D. L. (1972). The agenda-setting function of the mass media. Public Opinion Quarterly, 361, 176–187. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Miller, J. M. (2007). Examining the mediators of agenda-setting: A new experimental paradigm reveals the roles of emotions. Political Psychology, 281, 689–717. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nagel, E. (1963). Assumptions in economic theory. The American Economic Review, 53(2), 211–219.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ottati, V., Wilson, C., & Lambert, A. (2016). Accessibility, priming, and political judgment. Current Opinion in Psychology, 121, 1–5. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pavitt, C. (1999). The third way: Scientific realism and communication theory. Communication Theory, 91, 162–188. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2001). Philosophy of science and communication theory. Huntington, NY: Nova Science Publishers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2004). Theory-data interaction from the standpoint of scientific realism: A reaction to Bostrom. Communication Monographs, 71(3), 333–342. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2010). Alternative approaches to theorizing in communication science. In C. R. Berger, M. E. Roloff, & D. Roskos-Ewoldsen (Eds.), Handbook of communication science (2nd ed.; pp. 37–54). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Roskos-Ewoldson, D. R., Roskos-Ewoldsen, B., & Dillman Carpentier, F. (2009). Media priming: An updated synthesis. In J. Bryant & M. B. Oliver (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory and research (3rd ed., pp. 74–93). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scheufele, D. A. (1999). Framing as a theory of media effects. Journal of Communication, 491, 103–122. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scheufele, W. & Iyengar, S. (2011). The state of framing research: A call for new directions, [URL] retrieved 23.04.2018
Scheufele, D. A., & Tewksbury, D. (2007). Framing, agenda setting, and priming: The evolution of three media effects models. Journal of communication, 57(1), 9–20.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schutz, A. (1967). The phenomenology of the social world. Evanston IL: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Takeshita, T. (2006). Current critical problems in agenda-setting research. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 18(3), 275–296. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tewksbury, D. & Scheufele, D. (2009). News framing theory and research. In J. Bryant & M. B. Oliver, Media effects: Advances in theory and research, (eds) (Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ), 3rd ed, pp 17–33.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Valenzuela, S. (2011). Materialism, postmaterialism and agenda-setting effects: The values-issues consistency hypothesis. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 23(4), 437–463. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Valenzuela, S., & Chernov, G. (2016). Explicating the values-issue consistency hypothesis through need for orientation. Canadian Journal of Communication, 41(1). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vargo, C. J., Guo, L., & Amazeen, M. A. (2017). The agenda-setting power of fake news: A big data analysis of the online media landscape from 2014–2016. New Media & Society. Advance online publication. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vlăduţescu (2014). Four sources of uncertainty in communication ontology. Journal of Studies in Social Sciences, 7 (1), 2014, 19–31.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zucker, H. (1978). The variable nature of news media influence. Annals of the International Communication Association, 2(1), 225–240. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (6)

Cited by six other publications

Arceneaux, Phillip, Osama Albishri & Spiro Kiousis
2024. How Candidates Influence Each Other in Electoral Politics: Intercandidate Agenda-Building in Florida’s 2018 Midterm Election. Journal of Political Marketing 23:4 ► pp. 353 ff. DOI logo
Md. Shariful Islam, Md. Shamim Hossain, Safayat Hossen & Khairul Bashar
2024. DO LOCAL NEWSPAPERS REFLECT THE LOCALS? A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON LOCAL AND NATIONAL NEWS COVERAGE IN KHULNA. Khulna University Studies ► pp. 363 ff. DOI logo
Scherrer, Aline
2023. How media coverage of technologies affects public opinion: Evidence from alternative fuel vehicles in Germany. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions 47 ► pp. 100727 ff. DOI logo
Perloff, Richard M.
2022. The Fifty-Year Legacy of Agenda-Setting: Storied Past, Complex Conundrums, Future Possibilities. Mass Communication and Society 25:4 ► pp. 469 ff. DOI logo
Lee, Wan Soo & Myoung Hwan Shin
2020. Media Agenda Building on the National Economy : Salience and Hierarchy of the Agenda in Newspaper and Broadcasting Economic News Data(1998-2017). Korean Journal of Journalism & Communication Studies 64:5 ► pp. 248 ff. DOI logo
Niankara, Ibrahim, Muhammad Noor Al adwan & Aminata Niankara
2020. The Role of Digital Media in Shaping Youth Planetary Health Interests in the Global Economy. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity 6:3 ► pp. 49 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 14 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue