Decoding the agenda: An analytical model for manifest and latent knowledge of the public agenda

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to show a model of analysis based on the hypothesis of the agenda-setting but with a clear longitudinal, multidimensional and multiparadigmatic component.

Design/methodology: The theory of the media agenda (agenda setting) is one of the most applied communication theories in diversity of social science fields for studying the direct and cumulative effects of the media on the audiences. Decoding the agenda is a methodological model derived from this theory that strives to obtain a comprehensive knowledge of the effects of the messages broadcasted by the media on the public opinion. Our methodological and multidimensional model, as a difference to other multi-method and triangular models, exchanges and analyzes quantitative and qualitative data in a comprehensive way.

Contribution and results: In this article are presented the results of diverse pieces of research on the influence of the media in the analysis of social issues. Possible areas of application of the model in the economic sphere are indicated, especially in market and business studies.

Research limitations: The topics of study, for a good application of the model in its whole temporal and dimensional breadth, require building good secondary quantitative and qualitative data bases.

Practical implications: The results provided by the studies in which the model has been applied improve over time the knowledge of the influence of the media on the social, economic and political agendas.

Social implications: Better understanding of the agenda setting of social issues in the public opinion.

Added value: The implementation of the agenda decoder model improves the knowledge of the cumulative influence of the issues raised by the media on the public opinion.