Individuals, Groups, and Agenda Melding: A Theory of Social Dissonance

In: International journal of public opinion research, Volume 11, Issue 1, p. 2-24

Abstract

Many studies have established that there is a degree of audience learning from the mass media, especially of new issues entering the news, but recent studies show an agenda-setting effect at deeper levels beyond broad news categories. Audiences also absorb the attributes of news -- the frames & slants in the way news is presented -- & this suggests that, while the mass media do not tell us what to think, they do tell us how to think about topics, with implications for social policy. Beyond these two levels of agenda setting, however, is something more significant -- agenda melding, which argues that individuals join groups, in a sense, by joining agendas. There is a powerful impulse to affiliate with others in groups as one leaves the original family setting, & one joins these groups via media of connections, mostly other people, but also other media. A model of agenda melding is suggested here that accounts for the role of media (mass or interpersonal) in helping individuals move toward or away from groups. This attempts to build toward general social theory by suggesting the role of media in how individuals function with others in a coherent social system. 2 Tables, 4 Figures, 46 References. Adapted from the source document.