Cover not available
Article published In:
The Agenda Setting Journal
Vol. 3:2 (2019) ► pp.123–138

Diffusion as a future perspective of agenda setting

| Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munchen
| University of Stavanger |
| University of Haifa

The changing media environment has led to fragmentation of both media and audiences and thus to new flows of news items across channels and time. It has become challenging to clearly distinguish public and media agendas and their relationships. Our traditional way of counting single news items to determine an issue’s importance does not apply online. Articles are not scheduled into fixed publication cycles, they are moved, updated, or shared. Moreover, the variety of channels through which users encounter news loosens the connection between news items and their original source. We suggest “diffusion” as a concept to identify agenda-setting effects. News items are assigned different degrees of relevance by users clicking, liking, or sharing it. In turn, such relevance can affect others in assigning prominence to news items. The diffusion process results in a shared agenda which is constantly modified and updated by the entire community of online actors.

Keywords: agenda-setting, diffusion, theoretical challenges, methodological challenges, social media, time-series analysis
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Challenges of agenda-setting studies online
    • Case study
  • Diffusion as a key concept
    • Case study
  • Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 25 September 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/asj.18022.hai
References
Abrahamson, E.
(1991) Managerial fads and fashions: The diffusion and rejection of innovations. Academy of Management Review, 161, 586–612. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Adam, S. T., Häussler, T., Schmid-Petri, H., & Weber, U.
(2016) Identifying and analyzing hyperlink issue networks. In G. Vowe & P. Henn (Eds.), Political communication in the online world. Theoretical approaches and research designs (pp. 233–247). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Anderson, C. W.
(2011) Between creative and quantified audiences: Web metrics and changing patterns of newswork in local US newsrooms. Journalism, 121, 550–566. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Atkinson, M. L., Lovett, J., & Baumgartner, F. R.
(2014) Measuring the media agenda. Political Communication, 311, 355–380. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bakshy, E., Rosenn, I., Marlow, C., & Adamic, L.
(2012) The role of social networks in information diffusion. In A. Mille (Ed.), Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on World Wide Web (pp. 519–528). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Beam, M. A., & Kosicki, G. M.
(2014) Personalized news portals: Filtering systems and increased news exposure. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 911, 59–77. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bennett, W. L., & Iyengar, S.
(2008) A new era of minimal effects? The changing foundations of political communication. Journal of Communication, 581, 707–731. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bright, J., & Nicholls, T.
(2014) The life and death of political news measuring the impact of the audience agenda using online data. Social Science Computer Review, 321, 170–181. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brosius, H.-B., & Kepplinger, H. M.
(1995) Killer and victim issues: Issue competition in the agenda-setting process of German television. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 71, 211–231. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brosius, H.-B., & Weimann, G.
(1996) Who sets the agenda? Agenda-setting as a two-step flow. Communication Research, 231, 561–580. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Deutschmann, P. J., & Danielson, W. A.
(1960) Diffusion of knowledge of the major news story. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 371, 345–355. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fletcher, R., & Nielsen, R. K.
(2017) Are news audiences increasingly fragmented? A cross-national comparative analysis of cross-platform news audience fragmentation and duplication. Journal of Communication, 671, 476–498. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gentzkow, M.
(2017) Small media, big impact. Science, 358(6364), 726–727. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Guille, A., Hacid, H., Favre, C., & Zighed, D. A.
(2013) Information diffusion in online social networks: A survey. SIGMOD Record, 42(2), 17–28. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Guo, L., & Vargo, C. J.
(2017) Global intermedia agenda setting: A big data analysis of international news flow. Journal of Communication, 671, 499–520. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Guo, L., Vu, H. T., & McCombs, M. E.
(2012) An expanded perspective on agenda-setting effects. Exploring the third level of agenda setting. Revista de Comunicación, 111, 51–68.Google Scholar
Haim, M., Kümpel, A. S., & Brosius, H.-B.
(2018) Popularity cues in online media: A review of conceptualizations, operationalizations, and general effects. Studies in Communication and Media, 71, 186–207. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haim, M., Weimann, G., & Brosius, H.-B.
(2018) Who sets the cyber agenda? Intermedia agenda-setting online: The case of Edward Snowden’s NSA revelations. Journal of Computational Social Science, 11, 277–294. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Karnowski, V.
(2017) Diffusionstheorie (2nd ed.). Baden-Baden: Nomos. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Karnowski, V., Kümpel, A. S., Leiner, D., & Leonhard, L.
(2018, May). Artikel- oder Themeneigenschaften: Wie lässt sich die Verbreitung von Nachrichtenartikeln auf sozialen Netzwerkseiten erklären? Paper presented to the Annual Meeting of the German Communication Association (DFPUK), Mannheim, Germany.
Keyling, T., & Jünger, J.
(2016) Observing online content. In G. Vowe & P. Henn (Eds.), Political communication in the online world. Theoretical approaches and research designs (pp. 183–200). New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Keyling, T., Karnowski, V., & Leiner, D.
(2013) Nachrichtendiffusion in der virtuellen MediaPolis sozialer Netzwerke: Wie sich Nachrichtenartikel über Facebook, Twitter und Google+ verbreiten. In B. Pfetsch, J. Greyer, & J. Trebbe (Eds.), MediaPolis – Kommunikation zwischen Boulevard und Parlament. Strukturen, Entwicklungen und Probleme von politischer und zivilgesellschaftlicher Öffentlichkeit (pp. 209–227). Konstanz: UVK.Google Scholar
King, G., Schneer, B., & White, A.
(2017) How the news media activate public expression and influence national agendas. Science, 358(6364), 776–780. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kleinnijenhuis, J., & Walter, A. S.
(2014) News, discussion, and associative issue ownership: Instability at the micro level versus stability at the macro level. International Journal of Press/Politics, 191, 226–245. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lee, J. K.
(2007) The effect of the internet on homogeneity of the media agenda: A test of the fragmentation thesis. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 841, 745–760. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Luhmann, N.
(1995) Social systems. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
McCombs, M. E.
(2012) Civic osmosis: The social impact of media. Comunicación y Sociedad, 25(1), 7–14.Google Scholar
McCombs, M. E., & Shaw, D. L.
(1972) The agenda-setting function of mass media. Public Opinion Quarterly, 361, 176–187. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McCombs, M. E., Shaw, D. L., & Weaver, D. H.
(2014) New directions in agenda-setting theory and research. Mass Communication and Society, 171, 781–802. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McCombs, M., & Stroud, N. J.
(2014) Psychology of agenda-setting effects. Mapping the paths of information processing. Review of Communication Research, 21, 68–93. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Meraz, S.
(2011) The fight for ‘how to think’: Traditional media, social networks, and issue interpretation. Journalism, 121, 107–127. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Min, Y., Ghanem, S. I., & Evatt, D.
(2007) Using a split-ballot survey to explore the robustness of the ‘MIP’ question in agenda-setting research: A methodological study. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 191, 221–236. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Napoli, P. M.
(2010) Audience evolution: New technologies and the transformation of media audiences. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Neumann, R. W., Guggenheim, L., Jang, S. M., & Bae, S. Y.
(2014) The dynamics of public attention: Agenda-setting theory meets big data. Journal of Communication, 641, 193–214. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pew Research Center
(2017) How Americans encounter, recall and act upon digital news. Retrieved from [URL]
Roberts, M., Wanta, W., & Dzwo, T.-H. D.
(2002) Agenda setting and issue salience online. Communication Research, 291, 452–465. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rogers, E. M.
(1983) Diffusion of innovations. New York, NY: Free Press.Google Scholar
(2000) Reflections on news event diffusion research. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 771, 561–576. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Scharkow, M., & Vogelgesang, J.
(2011) Measuring the public agenda using search engine queries. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 231, 104–113. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shaw, D. L., & Colistra, R. F.
(2008) Agenda melding. In L. Kaid & C. Holtz-Bacha (Eds.), Encyclopedia of political communication (p. 12). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shaw, D. L., Hamm, B. J., & Terry, T. C.
(2006) Vertical versus horizontal media: Using agenda-setting and audience agenda-melding to create public information strategies in the emerging papyrus society. Military Review, 86(6), 13–25.Google Scholar
Shehata, A., & Strömbäck, J.
(2013) Not (yet) a new era of minimal effects: A study of agenda setting at the aggregate and individual levels. International Journal of Press/Politics, 181, 234–255. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Singer, J. B.
(2014) User-generated visibility: Secondary gatekeeping in a shared media space. New Media & Society, 16(1), 55–73. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Susarla, A., Oh, J.-H., & Tan, Y.
(2012) Social networks and the diffusion of user-generated content: Evidence from YouTube. Information Systems Research, 23(1), 23–41. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tan, Y., & Weaver, D. H.
(2013) Agenda diversity and agenda setting from 1956 to 2004. Journalism Studies, 141, 773–789. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vargo, C. J., & Guo, L.
(2017) Networks, big data, and intermedia agenda setting: An analysis of traditional, partisan, and emerging online U.S. news. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 941, 1031–1055. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vargo, C. J., Guo, L., McCombs, M., & Shaw, D. L.
(2014) Network issue agendas on Twitter during the 2012 U.S. presidential election. Journal of Communication, 641, 296–316. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Weaver, D. H.
(2007) Thoughts on agenda setting, framing, and priming. Journal of Communication, 571, 142–147. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Webster, J. G., & Ksiazek, T. B.
(2012) The dynamics of audience fragmentation: Public attention in an age of digital media. Journal of Communication, 621, 39–56. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Weimann, G., & Brosius, H.-B.
(2016) A new agenda for agenda-setting research in the new media era. In G. Vowe & P. Henn (Eds.), Political communication in the online world. Theoretical approaches and research designs (pp. 26–44). New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Wejnert, B.
(2002) Integrating models of diffusion of innovations: A conceptual framework. Annual Review of Sociology, 281, 297–326. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 6 other publications

Barredo Ibáñez, Daniel, Paulo Carlos López-López & Daniel Javier de la Garza Montemayor
2023. Social media and support for democracy in 18 Latin American countries: A comparative analysis of moderated mediation (2018–2020). Global Media and Communication DOI logo
Cools, Hannes, Baldwin Van Gorp & Michaël Opgenhaffen
2021. When Algorithms Recommend What’s New(s): New Dynamics of Decision-Making and Autonomy in Newsgathering. Media and Communication 9:4 ► pp. 198 ff. DOI logo
Doloreux, David & Ekaterina Turkina
2023. Intermediaries in regional innovation systems: An historical event-based analysis applied to AI industry in Montreal. Technology in Society 72 ► pp. 102192 ff. DOI logo
Su, Linsen & Xigen Li
2021. Perceived agenda-setting effect in international context: Impact of media coverage on American audience’s perception of China. International Communication Gazette 83:7 ► pp. 708 ff. DOI logo
Waisbord, Silvio & Adrienne Russell
2020. News Flashpoints: Networked Journalism and Waves of Coverage of Social Problems. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 97:2 ► pp. 376 ff. DOI logo
Wang, Xin & Maurice Vergeer
2024. Effect of Social Media Posts on Stock Market During COVID-19 Infodemic: An Agenda Diffusion Approach. SAGE Open 14:1 DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 25 march 2024. 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.