Concept
second-level agenda-setting
The idea that the media transfer to the public not only which issues, but also which attributes of issues or persons stand out.
Second-level agenda-setting proposes that the media transfer to the public agenda not only which issues but also which attributes of issues or persons stand out. The first level answers the question “which issue is important?”, the second level the question “which aspect of this issue or candidate is important?”
The concept’s first big test is the study McCombs and colleagues did in the 1995 Spanish regional and local elections: newspapers, television news and political ads influenced voters’ images of the candidates. Wanta and colleagues found that in news about foreign countries negative coverage increased negative perception, while positive coverage had no effect.
According to Weaver’s historical summary, the second-level idea became established in 1997 with the book Communication and Democracy and brought agenda-setting research closer to framing studies. Later a “third level” working through networks was added as well. For this lesson this concept is only a short definition; its detail is covered in the Priming and Second-Level Agenda-Setting lesson. Main concept: agenda-setting. Neighbouring concept: priming.
Example
The more negative news about a country appeared on network television, the more negatively people thought about that country; positive news had no such effect (Wanta, Golan and Lee 2004).