The non-linear effect of information on political attention

Ondertitel:media storms and U.S. congressional hearings

Agenda-setting scholars have claimed that the typical punctuated pattern of governmental attention is a consequence of disproportionate information processing. Yet these claims remain unsubstantiated. We tackle this challenge by considering mass media coverage as a source of information for political actors and by examining the relationship between preceding media information and subsequent governmental attention. Employing data capturing U.S. media attention and congressional hearings (19962006), we find that the effects of media attention on congressional attention are conditioned by the presence of media stormssudden and large surges in media attention to a given topic. A one-story increase in media attention has a greater effect on congressional attention in the context of a media storm, since media storms surpass a key threshold for catching policymakers attention. We find evidence that the influence of media attention on political attention is nonlinear; agenda-setting operates differently when the media are in storm mode.

Jaar van publicatie:2017

Trefwoorden:A1 Journal article

BOF-keylabel:ja

BOF-publication weight:3

CSS-citation score:2

Auteurs:International

Authors from:Higher Education

Toegankelijkheid:Open