Inter-Media Agenda Setting and Social Media

Understanding the Interplay Among Chinese Social Media, Chinese State-Owned Media and U.S. News Organizations on Reporting the Two Sessions

When examining inter-media agenda setting effects among different media, a considerable body of study focuses on whether online media news agenda is influenced by other media, such as newspaper and TV network. With the boom of social media platform, this study started to examine whether social media could act as an influencer. This study explored the inter-media agenda setting effects among Sina Micro Blog, two Chinese state-owned news media -People's Daily and Xinhua News Agency, and two U.S. news organizations - the New York Times and the Associated Press on covering the 2013 Two Sessions in China. Content analysis and cross-lag correlation analysis were applied to determine whether evidence of inter-media agenda setting influences existed among the selected media channels. The results indicated that Chinese social media might set news agenda for Chinese state-owned media throughout the whole examined time span. However, reciprocal effect was not found. The propaganda tools of Chinese government seemed to have no impact on the news agenda of social media platform. In terms of the international news flow, U.S. news organizations had no influence on all the Chinese media channels when covering this political event. However, both Chinese social media and state-owned news media impact the agenda of U.S. news media through the first two time periods. The inter-media agenda setting effects were partly supported.

When examining inter-media agenda setting effects among different media, a considerable body of study focuses on whether online media news agenda is influenced by other media, such as newspaper and TV network.