Inter-Media Agenda-Setting:the Interaction Between Mass Media And Intenet In The Case Of Public Emergencies

The "Agenda-Setting Theory" has been used a lot in the communication effects researches since it was officialy brought up in the 1970s. The Inter-Media Ageda-Setting Theory is one branch of Agenda-Setting Theory, it stresses that there is opinion leader effect between medias.This report did research on the intermedia agenda setting issue between mass media and the internet, through both qualitative and quantitative methods. On one hand, it tries to draw a intermedia interacting mode through case studies and content analysis; on the other hand, it also tries to uncover the inner pattern and the reason of this kind of interaction through interviews and participant observation.The research show that, in public emergencies, mass media and the internet has agenda interaction both in agenda and agenda properties. In the process of selecting agenda, the mass media and internet set the agenda together, in which process there’re both interaction and rupture. The interaction between them shows both "resonance effect" and "spill-out effect",the "resonance effect"takes place in those significant public emergencies, while the "spill-out effect"from internet to mass media is more prominent. Overall, in agenda, the agenda-setting effect is more prominent from the internet to mass media. In the process of setting agenda properties, there’s a tendency of properties’ coincide and rupture at the same time. The coincide takes place mostly in the news fact area and it is formed basically by the mass media. The rupture is mainly because there’s a difference between properties born in the internet and properties based on the tradition agenda-frame in the mass media. Overall, in agenda properties, the agenda-setting effect is more prominent from mass media to the internet.The result shows that, in public emergencies, the traditional inter-media agenda-setting theory is no longer appropriate nowadays. There’s more interaction than setting between the mass media and internet. There are three features in this kind of interaction. First, this interaction happens both at the macro and micro aspects; secondly, their acting forces towards each other are not always the same; thirdly, the interaction and rupturing happens at the same time, and have developed a new mode as "rupturing in interacting".Studies suggest that the main reason of interaction is due to the features of the internet, the development of technology and the characteristics of both media themselves. Meanwhile, the main reason that cause the breaks of their interactions would attribute to the professionalism of mass media and the economical property of the internet. Besides, government’s news control plays a important role in both the interaction and the rupture tendency.