The individual agenda-designing process - How interpersonal communication,egocentric networks, and mass media shape the perception of political issues by individuals
P. Roessler, The individual agenda-designing process - How interpersonal communication,egocentric networks, and mass media shape the perception of political issues by individuals, COMM RES, 26(6), 1999, pp. 666-700
The present study combines three data sets: (a) a representative survey amo
ng 900 German citizens; (b) a snowball survey among the interaction partner
s of these interviewees; and (c) a content analysis of newspaper, televisio
n, and radio coverage. The measurement of the independent variable was impr
oved by an individual matching procedure of content analysis data and the m
edia use patterns of each respondent. Whereas the aggregate-level analysis
shows the usually high correspondence between media and societal agenda, th
e individual-level comparison of whole issue agendas indicates mutual depen
dencies, with the personal agenda leading the individual media agenda more
frequently. Several path analysis models for single-issue relevance reveal
that the importance of an issue in the actually received media coverage exe
rts only little influence on the assessment of issue importance of a respon
dent. Instead personal factors, such as issue involvement, interpersonal co
mmunication, and the issue assessment of the network partners, exert a subs
tantial impact.