Concept
need for orientation
A concept that predicts a person’s wish to turn to the news media on an issue: the combination of personal relevance and uncertainty. It explains in whom agenda-setting will be stronger.
Need for orientation is a concept that predicts a person’s wish to turn to the news media on an issue: the combination of personal relevance and uncertainty. With this concept, drawn from the 1972 Charlotte voter panel, McCombs and David Weaver tried to explain that agenda-setting does not affect everyone equally. Weaver measured it as the combination of political interest and uncertainty.
The logic is this: if the issue matters to you but you are not sure what to think, you look for a “map” and adopt the media’s ranking more. The levels: if interest is low, need for orientation is low; if interest is high but uncertainty is low, it is moderate; if both are high, it is high. In Charlotte, the agendas of those who were very interested in the election and undecided were the most similar to the agendas of the local newspaper and network television news. In Matthes’s panel study, need for orientation increased the perceived salience of media emphasis and strengthened the first-level effect; but it did not influence the perceived salience of affective attributes.
The concept brings agenda-setting and the uses-and-gratifications approach closer together (Uses and Gratifications). In the Turkish literature the term appears as “yönelim gereksinimi”. Main concept: agenda-setting.
Example
In the 1972 Charlotte panel, the agendas of those who were very interested in the election and very uncertain about whom to vote for were the most similar to the agendas of the Charlotte Observer newspaper and network television news.