ABSTRACT

Using Gallup survey data and online news from 2015 to 2020, this study explored the degree to which audiences “meld” agendas from a wide array of news sources for the five most popular issues in the U.S.: the government and politicians, immigration, the economy, race relations, and healthcare. Overall, audiences of varying ideology had agendas that were congruent. Media agendas also appeared congruent, except on the issue of the economy. Conservative news media had a strong influence on audience issue salience. Horizontal (all partisan) and vertical (nonpartisan) media were in a virtual tie for influence among audiences. Despite an erosion in media trust, conservatives were receptive to issue salience from news media of all types, including liberal media. Liberals did not mirror elite media issue saliences, but were influenced by all other types of media, including conservative media. Moderates were influenced by the entire media landscape, to a somewhat even degree. Four out of the five issues studied here showed varying news media influence with no one media group nor ideology owning the agendas of an issue. The exception observed here was the issue of healthcare, which was influenced exclusively by liberal media for all three ideological groups.

摘要

本研究使用 2015 年至 2020 年的盖洛普调查数据和在线新闻，探讨了受众“融合”来自各种新闻来源的议程的程度，这些议程涉及美国五个最受欢迎的问题：政府和政治家、移民、经济、种族关系和医疗保健。总体而言，不同意识形态的观众有一致的议程。除经济问题外，媒体议程似乎也一致。保守的新闻媒体对受众问题的显着性有很大的影响。水平（所有党派）和垂直（无党派）媒体在观众之间形成了一种虚拟联系。尽管媒体信任受到侵蚀，保守派仍乐于接受包括自由媒体在内的各种新闻媒体的突出表现。自由主义者没有反映精英媒体问题的突出性，但受到所有其他类型媒体的影响，包括保守媒体。温和派在某种程度上受到整个媒体格局的影响。这里研究的五个问题中有四个显示出不同的新闻媒体影响力，没有一个媒体团体或意识形态拥有一个问题的议程。这里观察到的例外是医疗保健问题，它完全受到所有三个意识形态群体的自由媒体的影响。