AGENDA-SETTING WITH ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES: A STUDY OF TIME PROCESS, AUDIENCE SALIENCE, AUDIENCE DEPENDENCY, AND NEWSPAPER READING (MASS MEDIA, ECOLOGY)

This study had four primary purposes: (a) to trace the relationship between the media and the audience over time to observe whether audience salience rises and falls with media coverage, (b) to determine how long the media must report issues before they have maximal impact on the audience, (c) to determine how dependency on media and reading the local newspaper mediates or enhances agenda-setting, and (d) to investigate the interrelationships among different types of audience salience.;The maximal media effect span for media coverage to impact audience salience was found to be 8-10 weeks long. That duration was used as an a priori measure to test hypotheses. The findings showed that both dependent and regular readers displayed a greater agenda-setting effect than non-dependent and non-regular respondents. The regular readers, however, showed no relationship between their agenda and that of the local newspaper. It was audience members process an array of media to form their cognitions about this nationally important issue.;Finally, the study examined whether (a) dependent respondents had intrapersonal agenda that correlated higher with their perceived-media agenda than their perceived-community agenda, and (b) whether non-dependent respondents had intrapersonal agenda that correlated higher with their perceived-community agenda than their perceived-media agenda. Little support for these hypotheses was found.;Respondents were categorized as media-dependent or non-dependent based on where they learned about environmental issues. Audience salience was measured three ways: (a) personal salience (intrapersonal), (b) perceived-community salience, and (c) perceived-media salience.