Agenda-setting theory

Agenda-setting theory holds that mass media influence which issues people regard as important by shaping the prominence those issues receive in coverage.

Media agenda: The set and relative prominence of issues receiving attention in media coverage. It is the coverage pattern that agenda-setting theory proposes can shape public priorities.
Maxwell McCombs: An American communication scholar who helped develop agenda-setting theory. He co-authored the foundational Chapel Hill study of media and voter priorities.
Framing (social sciences): The process by which communication emphasizes some aspects of an issue to shape its interpretation. Agenda-setting emphasizes issue importance; framing concerns how an issue is understood.
Political communication: The production and exchange of messages about politics, government, and public affairs. Election coverage is a major setting in which agenda-setting effects are studied.
Selective exposure: The tendency to choose information that aligns with existing interests, beliefs, or attitudes. Audience selection can shape media use, complicating a one-way account of agenda influence.
Public agenda: The issues and relative priorities that people consider important. It is the audience-level outcome the theory connects to media prominence.
Donald Shaw: An American political communication scholar who helped formulate agenda-setting theory. His collaboration with McCombs established the theory's early empirical basis.
Priming (media): A media effect in which issue coverage influences the standards people use to evaluate leaders or policies. It is a related effect that can follow when coverage makes an issue salient.
Agenda-building: The process through which political actors and institutions shape the issues receiving media attention. It examines how sources help set the media agenda that may influence public priorities.
Two-step flow of communication: A model in which media influence often reaches people through interpersonal communication and opinion leaders. It assigns an intermediary role to social networks rather than focusing only on media prominence.

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