News of Priority Issues
in Print vs. Internet Newspapers
Internet newspapers present information in a different way from traditional media.
The news media on the Internet are turning the traditional one-to-many communication
process to many-to-many communication.
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Availability of new technology for delivering
news information and the variety of Web sites of newspapers due to different design
approaches offer new ways that news of priority issues is presented on the Internet, and
are probably altering media’s function in setting the public agenda. This study examines
whether different approaches in Web design that create diverse environment for readers to
access news information from Internet newspapers have an impact on prioritizing issues,
which is considered the starting point in setting the public agenda.
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Introduction
The research on agenda-setting has been going on over the last three decades.
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It
started from how media set the public agenda and expanded in boundaries and scope.
Media agenda refers to the priorities of issues in media content. The pioneer researchers
of agenda setting, McCombs and Shaw, wrote: “Audiences not only learn about public
issues and other matters through the media, they also learn how much importance is
attached to an issue or topic from the emphasis the mass media place upon it. This ability
to affect cognitive change among individuals is one of the most important aspects of the
power of mass communication.”
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Convention