TY - JOUR
T1 - What Is Most Important for My Country Is Not Most Important for Me
T2 - Agenda-Setting Effects in China
AU - Zhang, Guoliang
AU - Shao, Guosong
AU - Bowman, Nicholas David
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2012 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2012/10
Y1 - 2012/10
N2 - Employing a public opinion survey and a content analysis of local media, this study sets out to examine of the agenda-setting effect in China. China is highlighted in this study because it is a collectivist, socialist nation whose mainstream media is largely controlled by the state. Data from this study reveal that (a) Chinese people make clear distinctions between issues of personal importance (their personal agenda) and issues of national importance (their social agenda) and (b) the agenda-setting function of Chinese media was only observed when considering one's social agenda; the personal agenda was not related with the Chinese media agenda. These findings hold true when comparing across different demographic groups on variables such as age, education, news source, and one's ability to critically analyze news. This article contributes to agenda-setting scholarship by providing empirical evidence of agenda-setting effects in a political and media structure substantially different from the Western structures usually examined in such research.
AB - Employing a public opinion survey and a content analysis of local media, this study sets out to examine of the agenda-setting effect in China. China is highlighted in this study because it is a collectivist, socialist nation whose mainstream media is largely controlled by the state. Data from this study reveal that (a) Chinese people make clear distinctions between issues of personal importance (their personal agenda) and issues of national importance (their social agenda) and (b) the agenda-setting function of Chinese media was only observed when considering one's social agenda; the personal agenda was not related with the Chinese media agenda. These findings hold true when comparing across different demographic groups on variables such as age, education, news source, and one's ability to critically analyze news. This article contributes to agenda-setting scholarship by providing empirical evidence of agenda-setting effects in a political and media structure substantially different from the Western structures usually examined in such research.
KW - China
KW - agenda-setting
KW - media agenda
KW - public agenda
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84866403357&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0093650211420996
DO - 10.1177/0093650211420996
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84866403357
VL - 39
SP - 662
EP - 678
JO - Communication Research
JF - Communication Research
SN - 0093-6502
IS - 5
ER -