Tracing Media Audience Relationship Through Agenda Setting
A Study of Cable News Channels in Pakistan
Dr. Muhammad Riaz Raza
University of Sialkot
Abstract
The aim of this research study was to trace the relationship between media presentations and public priorities. To trace the media and public relationship for media influence on the public through agenda-setting, four issues Pak-US relations, energy crises, and national reconciliation ordinance were studied on two leading news cable channels, The Express and The Geo News Randomly selected news shows and bulletins for a period of one year have been examined to gauge the media agenda while a survey to cable television viewers of two news channels has been conducted separately to check the audience’s agenda on these issues. 156 news bulletins and the same number of prime time talk shows were analyzed through agenda-setting and framing models to gauge media agenda. Results confirmed strong connections between media’s issues salience and the audience’s issue priorities on four understudied issues. Correlations were measured from r +0.66 to r +0.90 with a p-value of less than .001. H1 and H2 have confirmed the strong media influence on the public priorities in ranking the understudied issues.
