Dynamic, time-series tests confirm that media attention shapes public concern

Evidence

If they are to be detected, agenda setting effects must be investigated over time. … Though few in number, dynamic tests of agenda setting do fare better than their crosssectional counterparts. Funkhouser (1973), for example, found substantial concurrence between the amount and timing of attention paid to various problems in the national press between 1960 and 1970 and the importance accorded problems by the American public. These results were fortified by MacKuen’s more sophisticated and more genuinely dynamic analysis (MacKuen & Coombs, 1981). MacKuen discovered that over the past two decades fluctuations in public concern for problems like civil rights, Vietnam, crime, and infla tion closely reflected changes over time in the attention paid to them by the national media. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1445

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Sovereign influence over government hinges on mass-media enlightening quality. — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 18; Public discourse about technology shapes behavior, attention, and capital flows — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 57; Distrust of media now outweighs trust across twenty-eight surveyed countries — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 112 (+4 more)