Testing Generational, Life Cycle, and Period Effects of Age on Agenda Setting

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between age and the media's agenda-setting effects both by cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis. Using American National Election Studies surveys and the New York Times Index data from 1960 to 2004, we test three possible effects of age on the agenda-setting process: generational, life-cycle, and period effects. Findings show the public agenda is fairly stable across generations and age cohorts despite increasing signs of media diversification and audience specialization. More important, different generations’ agendas were overall correlated with the media agenda in each year, indicating robust agenda-setting effects of the media on the public, except for baby boomers. The findings generally support the hypothesis of period effects. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Notes

Note. N = number of issue categories.

*p < .05 (one-tailed).

**p < .01 (one-tailed).

¹The data used here were originally collected by Frank R. Baumgartner and Bryan D. Jones, with the support of National Science Foundation grant number SBR 9320922, and were distributed through the Department of Government at the University of Texas at Austin and/or the Department of Political Science at Penn State University. Neither NSF nor the original collectors of the data bear any responsibility for the analysis reported here.

²A typical wording of the most important problem question is, “What do you think is the most important problem facing the country today?” There is much variation in most important problem questions, suggesting the possibility of differing measurement of opinion. However, a recent study found that there are strong correlations between agendas measured by various forms of the most important problem question. See Min, Ghanem, and Evatt (2007).

³The eight issue categories are social welfare, agriculture and natural resources, labor and union-management relations, race and public order, economy, foreign affairs, national defense, and functioning of the government.

⁴Some studies used different age breaks in defining generational categories. We performed the same analyses with 18 to 24, 25 to 34, 35 to 54, and 55+ age groups but found no significantly different results.

Note. For each year, the total number of most important problems mentioned by survey respondents is different because mentions of non-political problems were treated as missing.

**p < .01 (1-tailed); *p < .05 (1-tailed).

N = number of issue categories.

Note. N =number of issue categories.

*p < .05 (one-tailed).

**p < .01 (one-tailed).

Note. N =number of issue categories.

*p < .05 (one-tailed).

**p < .01 (one-tailed).

⁵We'd like to thank an anonymous reviewer for this suggestion.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jae Kook Lee

Jae Kook Lee (Ph. D., University of Texas at Austin, 2009) is an Assistant Professor in the School of Journalism at Indiana University. His research interests include media effects and public opinion in the changing media environment.

Renita Coleman

Renita Coleman (Ph. D., University of Missouri, 2001) is an Associate Professor in the School of Journalism at University of Texas at Austin. Her research interests include agenda setting, visual communication, and ethics.