Browsing by Subject "Agenda setting"

Now showing 1 - 10 of 10

Incentives and competition for information in Congress
(2012-12) Lewallen, Jonathan Daniel; Theriault, Sean M., 1972-; Jones, Bryan D
Policymakers need a wide array of information for multiple purposes. Acquiring information often is costly, so it is assumed that incentives must be provided to overcome these costs and stimulate information gathering. It is further assumed that increasing the number of actors engaged in acquiring information creates free-rider problems. In 2007 the U.S. House of Representatives created a select committee to address energy and environment issues, but did not give that committee legislative authority. The new committee could not compete with others for the ability to write or amend legislation, so its presence should not have changed the standing committee’s information gathering patterns. In fact, committees did alter their hearing patterns in response to the select committee’s work. Information has jurisdictional and reputational value to policymakers in addition to the incentives it can help them obtain, and policymakers will act to acquire information even without explicit incentives to do so.
Marching orders? : U.S. party platforms and legislative agenda setting 1948-2014
(2017-12) Fagan, Edward James; Jones, Bryan D.
What is the relationship between the priorities expressed in party platforms before an election and the subsequent legislative agenda? The agenda setting literature often deemphasizes the role of political parties in agenda setting. However, parties will often express different issue priorities during elections, and compete based on those priorities. The paper utilizes new data from the U.S. Policy Agendas Project and Wolbrecht (2016) on policy attention in U.S. party platforms to study the relationship between U.S. parties and legislative activities in Congress. A time series cross sectional analysis finds strong evidence to support the proposition that legislative agendas are influenced by the platform of the President’s party in the short term, although the relationship differs for different types of agendas and by issue, and fades over time.
Media misdiagnosis? : a longitudinal analysis of frames, primes, and public opinion in relation to newspaper coverage of HIV/AIDS and smoking
(2016-08) Suran, Melissa Nicole; Coleman, Renita; McCombs, Maxwell E.; Johnson, Thomas J.; Lasorsa, Dominic L.; Mackert, Michael S.
Medical issues are considered among the most popular topics in the media. However, because much health news research tends to focus on specific attributes rather than macro frames that are universally applicable to medical issues at large, paired with the fact that most framing studies do not examine topics for more than a decade, this study explores how macro frames and stereotype primes in medical news change over time as well how these changes affect public opinion. This was accomplished by developing a content analysis to longitudinally examine medical news content from The New York Times and The Washington Post. Two topics— HIV/AIDS and smoking—were strategically selected for this study, as they both have been considered major issues for decades and written about extensively. A follow‐up, agenda‐setting study comparing HIV/AIDS and smoking news to related public opinion polls was also conducted to determine how much the media influence the public over time and if the general opinion corresponds with framing and priming changes in the news. Previous research about frames, most of which examines less than a decade of coverage, emphasizes that topics in the news tend to gradually change from being episodic to thematic in nature. Therefore, the first study of this dissertation contributes to framing theory by determining whether similar patterns occur when analyzing issues during a longer period of time. The findings of the first study revealed that when examined over the course of decades, frames did not change in a particular direction; rather, there was an ebb and flow of frame changes based on whether the events of a particular year were inherently episodic (e.g., a celebrity death) or thematic (e.g., the release of a groundbreaking study). Because journalists strive for objectivity, how the news is framed tends to be influenced by the sources they choose. Therefore, this study also examined what sources predict the frames found in news about HIV/AIDS and smoking. The results indicated that experts and government organizations were significant predictors of thematic news while laypeople predicted episodic coverage. This study also determined that the media did not perpetuate exaggerated stereotypes in coverage of HIV/AIDS or smoking. The second study found that coverage of HIV/AIDS with combined episodic and loss frames was significantly associated with the public attributing the contraction of HIV/AIDS to individual blame. News that featured both thematic and loss frames significantly correlated with the public being in favor of societal efforts to end smoking. Thus, this study confirmed the results from experimental research that found pairing thematic and loss frames causes similar audience effects. However, unlike the former experiments, this study concluded that episodic/loss frame combinations influence public opinion as well.
Raising the issue : inter-institutional agenda setting on Social Security
(2014-12) Eissler, Rebecca Michelle; Jones, Bryan D.
When setting the agenda for policy change, does the president convince Congress to pay attention to an issue or vise versa? Does the level of influence vary by chamber in Congress? Scholars of American political institutions have long struggled over questions regarding the directionality of agenda setting influence. This paper examines presidential and congressional action on Social Security from 1946 to 2008 to see if one branch has a significant effect on the other in regard to placing an issue on the institutional agenda. Additionally, this paper considers how the two houses of Congress may differ at the agenda setting stage on an issue. Using Vector Autoregression, I test the directionality of agenda setting influence in a social policy area to get a better picture of agenda setting dynamics.
Seriously social : crafting opinion leaders to spur a two-step flow of news
(2011-05) Kaufhold, William Thomas; Lasorsa, Dominic L.
Since the 1960s, the United States has experienced steady declines in news consumption and commensurate attrition in civic engagement and political participation. Americans read newspapers at less than one fourth the rate of 60 years ago; voter turnout has fallen to the point where the U.S. ranks 23 out of 24 established democracies; signing petitions, volunteering for a civic organization like the PTA and political party affiliation are all at contemporary lows. But these indicators only tell half the story…the younger half. Because among Americans over age 50, attrition in all these areas is much milder; among those under age 30 they are much steeper. So do young adults get news? If so, how do they get news? If not, how do they find out about things? A 21-year old journalism student reported that: “I usually just hear it from friends, when I talk to friends.” The present study employed four methods: Secondary analysis of longitudinal Pew data; interviews and focus groups about news consumption and media use habits, including social media and wireless devices; a survey on social media use and its relationship to news and news knowledge; and an experiment testing a novel game as a way to convey news and civics knowledge, all involving students at three large state universities. Findings include the following: students often rank social media use, like Facebook, as their most important and most-used media; social media are negatively related with traditional news use and with news knowledge; students draw clear and important distinctions between news and information; one method of teaching (direct instruction) works well while another (a news game) works, but not as well. Of particular interest is the role of opinion leaders in the two-step flow of news, and the role of relevance and need for orientation in agenda setting. Novel contributions include a clearer definition of students’ distinction between news and important information as they define it, a framework by which to experiment with creating an interactive game using news to promote news seeking, and some provocative recommendations for future research.
The surrender of secrecy : explaining the emergence of strong access to information laws in Latin America
(2010-05) Michener, Robert Gregory; Madrid, Raúl L.; Alves, Rosental C.; Brinks, Daniel; Greene, Kenneth F.; Weyland, Kurt G.; Edwards, David V.
Worldwide, the remarkable diffusion of transparency and access to information laws poses a monumental challenge to the state’s most enduringly undemocratic feature— excessive secrecy. Will recent laws lead to an effective surrender of secrecy? The incipient literature on transparency reform says little about the strength of current legislation or how strong laws emerge. This dissertation addresses these theoretical and empirical gaps. First, it articulates a theory on the political determinants of strong access to information laws. Second, employing an original evaluation, it scores the strength of twelve access to information laws advanced throughout Latin America between 2002 and 2010. Two extreme outcomes are examined in detail: a failed comprehensive reform in Argentina (1999-2005), which resulted in a limited presidential decree (2003), and the adoption of a seminal law in Mexico (2002). These cases are then compared with others across Latin America with special attention placed on Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, and Uruguay. I find considerable variance in the strength of the region’s laws: the average score is “moderately strong,” while the median and mode scores are “moderately weak.” Evidence shows that while civic coalitions and external pressure often help drive reform, they cannot explain observed variation in legal strength. Rather, I find that laws emerge more robust and earlier-on within the electoral cycle (within the first half of a president’s term of office), in countries where 1) presidents lack control over the legislature and 2) news media coverage of access to information laws is strong. By contrast, where news media coverage is weak and presidents possess strong negative agenda setting powers (partisan majorities or constitutional means of denying a vote), I find that laws tend to emerge later-on during the electoral cycle (within the last third), and are considerably weaker. I also find that press advocacy for access to information laws tended to be greater in countries where presidents were weaker and news media ownership concentration was low. The dissertation addresses key institutional preconditions for good governance and transparency reform. More specifically, it speaks to the determinants and power of the news media as an agent of democratic advancement (and stagnation), and the importance of weak leaders and partisan competition in promoting good governance reform.
The city agenda : local governance and national influence in the policy agenda, 1900-2020
(2022-09-12) Shannon, Brooke Nicole; Jones, Bryan D.; Wlezien, Chris; Philpot, Tasha S; Bjerre Mortensen, Peter
All politics may be local, but local government policy is often inspired by the national level. The nationalization of politics; school board and city council meetings erupting with anger about national elections, public health policies, or campaign issues such as critical race theory being taught in schools, these examples reflect growing cohesion of politics and messaging from national to local politics. National politics affects local government in less bombastic ways as well, though. Movements for equitable representation, cleaning up dangerous downtowns, and even for civil rights often begin at the national level with an eye to urban politics, and affect local governmental policy agendas, as city councils respond to national politics. Local government has a pragmatic reputation. New York mayor Fiorello LaGuardia reportedly embraced it, saying, “There’s no Republican or Democrat way to pick up the garbage”. Municipal governance is much more than service provision and garbage collection, although both are consequential in any city. I look directly to policies of local government for how external political movement and the myriad problems facing local policymakers influences impact agenda setting. I use city council meeting minutes from Austin, Texas from 1900 to 2020 to examine issues comprising the local policy agenda. I find the local agenda is influenced by local conditions and national attention alike, in unexpected policy areas.
The gatekeeping role of the Office of the Solicitor General at the certiorari stage
(2022-05-02) Bird, Christine Catherine; Perry, H. W.; Theriault, Sean M., 1972-; Jones, Bryan; Evans, Rhonda
The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) is a key repeat player in the U.S. Supreme Court decision-making process. It maintains a storied co-dependent relationship with the Supreme Court and is the most successful litigant at the merits stage in appellate litigation. Yet, we understand very little about the OSG’s role in the policy making process at the agenda-setting stage. In this dissertation, I seek to add to the discussion of agenda setting and organizational influence in judicial policymaking. Instead of considering the appointed head of the Office, the Solicitor General, I dig deeper into how the full bureaucratic entity behaves in the context of a broader policy process. I present evidence that the OSG’s most consequential role is not at the merits stage, but as an organizational entity talented and empowered to gatekeep access to the Supreme Court. I employ a novel dataset I collected and coded of more than 2,500 certiorari-stage cases involving the Office of the Solicitor General between the 1999 and 2019 terms. I leverage a secondary text as data dataset from cert-stage briefs filed by the Office of the Solicitor General and its opponents. I show the Office of the Solicitor General is extraordinarily successful at keeping cases off of the Supreme Court’s docket. I show evidence of the OSG’s concerted efforts to convince the Supreme Court to deny access (and quickly) to its substantive docket when the request for review disrupts the government’s legal and policy goals. I show the Office of the Solicitor General, due to its high case load and its privileged position with the Supreme Court, develops a process to strategically prioritizes its effort in cert-cases with highly sophisticated opponents and/or in issue areas central to its institutional agenda. Ultimately, I demonstrate the Office of the Solicitor General manages its role as an institutional political entrepreneur by prioritizing a defensive legal strategy and works to gatekeep access to the Supreme Court’s agenda.
What are they saying : content analysis of domestic violence messaging via Twitter
(2015-05) Cicatello, Grace Ann; Stout, Patricia A.
Domestic violence is a pervasive socio-economic issue. This exploratory research studied the relationship between Twitter and conversations about domestic violence, and what the relationship might indicate for future communication efforts. A random sample of tweets were collected and analyzed via SAS Text Miner. Results showed that Twitter is perceived as a news information source per uses and gratifications theory, which discouraged personal disclosure of experience with domestic violence. As such conversations about domestic violence on Twitter were more civic and legal in nature, indicating that Twitter is being utilized more as an agenda setting platform with messages being carefully framed depending on intended audience.
You better find something to do : lawmaking and agenda setting in a centralized Congress
(2017-05) Lewallen, Jonathan Daniel; Theriault, Sean M., 1972-; Jones, Bryan D; Wlezien, Christopher; Jessee, Stephen; Workman, Samuel
The U.S. Congress has significantly curtailed its lawmaking activities in recent years, and many commentators, scholars, and legislators themselves point to a decline in the institution’s output. Two trends blur this focus. First, the number of substantive (non-commemorative) laws enacted by Congress did not significantly decline until very recently. Second, that the roots of this decline have been growing for several decades, in the committee system. Data from 1981 to 2012 show that congressional committees have significantly shifted their activity towards oversight and other non-legislative policymaking at the expense of advancing legislation. Congressional committees act as Congress’s agenda setting capacity by determining what issues the institution can and will address and how it does so. Any explanation for a decline in congressional lawmaking, therefore, must begin with committees. I develop a theory of committee policymaking in this dissertation based on the limited agenda space decisionmakers face. Making policy through legislative or non-legislative means involves opportunity costs, and committees face uncertainty about whether their legislative work will bear fruit. With this theory as a guide, I test three explanations for the longitudinal shift in committee activity away from legislation. While current and former members of Congress, commentators, and other observers blame political gridlock and an expanding executive branch, I find that changes made to the legislative process itself have altered the incentives for committees to compete for agenda space and make policy through legislation. Members of both parties have centralized agenda setting responsibilities under party leaders over the last three decades, which has altered the contours and availability of legislative authority. My findings have important implications for Congress’s role in the policy process and how scholars and citizens evaluate the institution, including the importance of committee incentives and capacity for congressional agenda setting.