Intraday Salience Transfer, Social Network Analysis, and the Media: Analyzing Agenda-Setting in the Manic World of Online Publishing

This research explores the changing landscape of news media publishing within the environment of intraday online news publication. Specific attention is given to the influence of elite media on the salience-transfer of agenda items to other news outlets. The influence of social networking sites (SNSs) is also explored as a potential variable in the agenda-building process. Results suggest an attenuated elite media effect, with all media types exerting influence unevenly when measured across the span of an entire day. In addition, a lockstep relationship was observed between public conversation on SNSs and media publication about the same topics. Findings are considered within the context of shifting news norms as well as the agendamelding framework.