Intraday Intermedia Agenda-Setting in the Manic World of Online News Reporting

ABSTRACT

This research explores the changing landscape of intermedia agenda-setting as it occurs over the course of a single day. Specific attention is given to the attenuated influence of elite legacy media (The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal) on the online news reporting of other types of media. Using a content analysis of 16 news media outlets, results suggest that elite legacy media are no longer the sole agenda setter within United States media. Data were analyzed using both the traditional method of identifying first-level agenda categories, but also analyzing second-level story topics within the broader agenda categories. As the intermedia agenda-setting process occurs more rapidly than ever, a 1-hour time lag is used to capture the process more precisely.

KEYWORDS:

• Agenda-setting
• media
• journalism
• intermedia agenda-setting

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. To be included, an active RSS feed had to be available. The New York Post and The Los Angeles Times were not used due to technical issues with the RSS content feed.