Wayne Wanta

Agenda Setting and International News: Media Influence on Public Perceptions of Foreign Nations:

A national poll and a content analysis of network newscasts examined if coverage of foreign nations had an agenda-setting influence. The more media coverage a nation received, the more likely respondents were to think the nation was vitally important to U.S. interests, supporting the agenda-setting hypothesis. The more negative coverage a nation received, the more likely respondents were to think negatively about the nation, supporting the second level of agenda setting. Positive coverage of a nation had no influence on public perceptions.

Second-Level Agenda Setting in the New Hampshire Primary: A Comparison of Coverage in Three Newspapers and Public Perceptions of Candidates

Second-level agenda setting was examined during the New Hampshire primary through a comparison of Gallup poll responses and coverage in three newspapers in the region. Results show that John McCain was covered much more positively than George W. Bush. The findings also show that respondents linked four of six cognitive attributes (issues, personal characteristics) to candidates in direct proportion to media coverage. The results show less support for media influence on the affective (positive) attributes individuals linked to candidates.

International Elections on US Network News An Examination of Factors Affecting Newsworthiness

A content analysis examined factors that could predict coverage of international elections on US newscasts. All 138 elections held between 1 January 1998 and 1 May 2000 were included in the analysis. Many of the results run counter to previous findings. Countries with few ancestral ties with the US, with nuclear arms or developing nuclear arms, with close relations with China, with low trade with the US and in regions with conflicts were more likely to receive election coverage than other nations. In general, while the elections offer the news media the opportunity to show positive news — democracy in action — coverage continues to concentrate on the negative by highlighting elections in those countries that pose potential threats and are relatively unknown to the US.

Drug Peddlers: How Four Presidents Attempted to Influence Media and Public Concern on the Drug Issue

This agenda-building study examined the presidencies of Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush to determine to what degree they influenced media and public concern for the drug issue. This study found a complex reciprocal relation between the president, the public, and the press, with results differing depending what president and newspapers were studied. However, when the data are examined across the various presidents rather than on individual leaders, the agenda-setting process is especially powerful with 8 of the 9 predicted paths proving significant. This study discovered that the president plays an equal or greater role than the media in the agenda-building process. The path between presidential statements and public approval was higher than the one between the media and the public. Although public approval polls drove both media coverage and presidential statements, the polls had a greater effect on the media. Finally, the path from presidential statements to subsequent media coverage was just as strong as the one from media coverage to subsequent presidential statements. Agenda-setting researchers, then, should not ignore the effects of the president and other officials on the agenda-setting process.

Visual communication theory and research: A mass communication perspective

1. Linking Theory to Visual Communication 2. Historical Research 3. Who: Research on the Sources of Visual Communication 4. Says What: Research on the Content in Visual Communication 5. To Whom: Research on the Audiences in Visual Communication 6. In Which Channel: Research on Media Used in Visual Communication 7. With What Effect I: Research on Cognitive Effects of Visual 8. With What Effect II: Research on Attitudinal Effects of Visual 9. With What Effect III: Research on Behavioral Effects of Visual 10. Conclusions

what visual journalists think others think The perceived impact of news photographs on public opinion formation

A survey of photojournalists and press photo editors (N = 516) examined the perceived level of impact of graphic photographs on fear of further terrorist attacks, perceptions of the U.S. government, issues of national security and civil liberties, support for military actions in Afghanistan, as well as perceptions of Islam, Arabs, and Muslims. Results reveal visual journalists believe their work can have powerful effects on the public under certain circumstances. Overall, respondents were more likely to rate visuals that ran from 9/11 to be more powerful than visuals that ran from the Afghan War. Further, data analysis offers support for the sociology of news perspective. Findings indicate homogeneous attitudes towards the impact of visual messages on the public.

The path to war: Exploring a second-level agenda-building analysis examining the relationship among the media, the public and the president

This study combines both the agenda-building and the second-level agenda approaches. It proposes an expansion of agenda-building research by examining the interaction among the president, the media and the public for an event that was not considered an existing ‘real-world’ condition. Specifically, this study uses former President Bush’s five most prominent rationales for invading Iraq to explore the three-way reciprocal relationship among the media, the public and the president on attributes related to the pre-emptive strike on Iraq. The study found evidence of the information subsidies approach as Bush influenced media coverage of the Iraq War. The research also found more evidence of a linear model of agenda-building. The media and presidential agenda had only a limited influence on public concern about the war. Public concern influenced how much space the president devoted to the five issues on his Iraq War agenda and the press also had some limited influence on the issues stressed by the former president.

Missing religion: Second level agenda setting and Islam in American newspapers

Second level agenda setting offers a way of demonstrating the effects of news content by providing evidence that the attributes emphasized in news coverage become more salient in the minds of media consumers and more influential in terms of actual effects on opinions and attitudes. This exploratory study examines the substantive and affective attributes of the religion of Islam in coverage of 18 US newspapers and compares those attributes with results of a Gallup Center for Muslim Studies poll to determine whether a relationship exists between the coverage of Islam and public perception, as the second level of agenda setting suggests. Two hypotheses were tested. The results showed that attributes related to Islam were overwhelmingly covered in negative terms. However, the analysis of media coverage of attributes linked to the ‘object’ of Islam and public perceptions of Islam suggested little support for attribute agenda setting.

Reflections on Communication and Sport: On Reporting and Journalists

In this essay, Wayne Wanta reflects on sports reporting and journalists in the context of the traditions of mass communication research and theory. The first section focuses on the importance of communication and sport and the challenges in getting respect for sports journalism. The second section focuses on influences on and the development of a research agenda on sports reporting. The focus section of the paper considers theoretical development and the challenges of finding an appropriate theoretical framework for the study of sports reporting and journalists. Here, research centered on cultivation theory, the hostile media effect, gender comparisons in coverage, the social construction of reality, agenda-setting and framing, and news gathering routines is considered. The article closes with a look ahead for communication and sport research.

Mediated public diplomacy: Satellite TV news in the Arab world and perception effects:

Using Entman’s work on mediated public diplomacy, the authors conducted an Arabic-language online survey of news consumers on Arab websites, including one US-funded media outlet. They examined factors leading to gaps in exposure and perceptions of credibility for three Arab news outlets. Specifically, they examined variables that differentiated between exposure to and perceived credibility regarding the three satellite news media – al-Jazeera, al-Arabiya, and al-Hurra. Results showed that issue importance and attitudes toward the United States were significant predictors of exposure gaps between the US-funded network and other Arab media. Exposure gaps were also powerful predictors of perceived credibility.