The individual agenda-designing process - How interpersonal communication,egocentric networks, and mass media shape the perception of political issues by individuals

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.