What to think about
The applicability of agenda-settings in a social media context
This study examines how agenda setting works on social media in the United States. Unlike previous platform
studies, this research seeks to examine not just if, but also how agenda setting works in a social media setting. Three areas were
tested for their effect on issue salience: repetition, story order, and endorsement. More than 360 U.S. participants viewed
variations of a mock Facebook feed and answered questions about issue importance. Using issue importance as the dependent variable
and repetition, story order, and endorsement as the independent variables, three hypotheses were tested. One hypothesis had the
effect predicted: Increased repetition of a news story topic did influence participants’ perception that the news story topic was
important. Additional items were tested as covariates. Gender, and ethnicity had a significant influence on perceived story
importance. The results of this study indicate that agenda setting on social media occurs through repetition. Implications are
explored.
Article outline
- Literature review
- Theory development
- Differences among platforms
- Research related to social media
- Salience through repetition
- Visual hierarchy
- Endorsement
- Method
- Pilot test
- Design
- Measures
- Demographic data
- Hypothesis testing
- Discussion
- Conclusion
-
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► pp. 158 ff.
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