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although not the advertising media, showed highly substantial amount of influence on the
topics of public opinion concerning candidates’ personas. This strategy of analysis came
from the consideration of the contexts of an intraparty race in the nominating stage where
ideological and political differences between the candidates may not be (or even should
not be ) significant. This finding calls for future research to compare the nominating and
general election stages in terms of the patterns of mass media agenda setting. In other
words, particular aspects of candidate attributes may be more effectively transferred from
the mass media to the public depending on the stage of an election campaign. For
instance, personal attributes may attract more attention in a primary competition, as this
study has shown, while people may have higher need for orientation about the political
and policy attributes of the candidates.
Third, the analysis of the consequences of personal attribute setting demonstrated
which elements the mass media most emphasize as to the political candidates eventually
influence individuals’ candidate evaluation and even their decisions for whom to vote.
This process actually consisted of two steps. Specifically, the first step was comprised of
the process by which the news media’s candidate coverage framed the elements
prominent when the audiences thought of the candidates and, consequently, the personal
attributes they considered most important in their choice of the leader of the state
government. The attitudinal and behavioral consequences of this attribute salience
transfer constituted the second phase. That is, which personal attribute functioned as the
most important criterion for their decision-making eventually influenced the voters’
candidate preference and voting choice. In sum, theses results indicate that the agenda
setting function of the mass media may bear significantly on the electoral outcomes. In
Convention