• DOI:10.1111/J.1460-2466.2006.00005.X
• Corpus ID: 154976527

The Contingency of the Mass Media's Political Agenda Setting Power: Toward a Preliminary Theory

@article{Walgrave2006TheCO,
  title={The Contingency of the Mass Media's Political Agenda Setting Power: Toward a Preliminary Theory},
  author={Stefaan Walgrave and Peter Van Aelst},
  journal={Journal of Communication},
  year={2006},
  volume={56},
  pages={88-109}
}

• S. Walgrave, P. Aelst
• Published 1 March 2006
• Political Science
• Journal of Communication

Recently the study of the relationship between the media and the political agenda has received growing attention of both media and political science scholars. However, these research efforts have not led to a general discussion or a real theory on the media’s political agenda setting power. This article first analytically confronts the often contradictory results of the available evidence. Then, it sketches the broad outline of a preliminary theory. Political agenda setting by the media is contingent upon a number of conditions. The input variables of the model are the kind of issues covered, the specific media outlet, and the sort of coverage. Political context variables, the features of the political actors at stake, are at the heart of the model. The model proposes five sorts of output ranging from no political adoption to fast substantial adoption of media issues.