Mapping the intermedia agenda setting (IAS) literature

Abstract

Abstract This study systematically reviewed empirical intermedia agenda setting (IAS) research published between 1997 and 2019, in terms of the level of agenda-setting, the methodologies – including the coding strategies and time-series analytical techniques – the types of media, and the flow of IAS effects. According to our results, previous IAS studies exhibited the following trends: (1) an overwhelming majority of the IAS studies was anchored by the first agenda-setting level, whilst examinations of the NAS model and multiple levels have increased in recent years; (2) excessive IAS studies performed content analyses, (3) applied manual coding strategies, (4) conducted cross-lagged correlation analyses to examine time-series effects, (5) and focused on newspapers and Twitter; (6) most IAS research confirmed the flow from one traditional media to another traditional media, whereas more recent studies also revealed the flow from traditional to emerging media, and their reciprocal relationship; (7) the majority of IAS studies confirmed the elite-to-non-elite flow of IAS effects. Based on these findings, this study encourages futures IAS researchers to attach more importance to (1) contextual diversity, (2) balanced examinations of each agenda-setting level, (3) methodological innovations, (4) technological pluralism, and (5) providing more evidence for the flow of IAS effects across different types of media.