Convergence of Agenda Setting and Attitude Change Approaches

Agenda setting shows that people perceive as§important those issues, which are covered by the§media more frequently. Recently, agenda-setting§scholars started to explore the link between§agenda-setting and attitude change. This study tests§whether experience with issues and specificity of§messages lead to both agenda-setting and attitudinal§effects. This study tested whether the Elaboration§Likelihood Model (the ELM) complements priming in§bringing about agenda-setting and attitudinal§effects. Findings indicate that reading the stories§leads to the heightened issue importance for the§issues with which individuals do not have direct§experience. Attitude favorability towards issues§increases if individuals do not have direct personal§experience with it, and if a story about it contained§general attributes.For the ELM variables, lower level§of knowledge about issues lead to higher issue §perceived importance. Knowledge and elaboration §affect the overall attitude favorability. This study §develops an explanatory mechanism why agenda setting §takes place. The analysis should be useful for §scholars and professionals interested in agenda §setting theory.