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Issue salience of Facebook users in Egypt: an agenda-setting experiment

This study explores issue salience among Egyptian Facebook users during the parliamentary elections of December 2011. The researcher examines the potential of agenda-setting effects occurring from the use of social media as an information source. In this study, a field experiment with a pretest/po...

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Main Author: Visonà, Mark
Format: Thesis
Published: AUC Knowledge Fountain 2012
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access_status_str Open Access
author Visonà, Mark
author_browse Visonà, Mark
author_facet Visonà, Mark
author_sort Visonà, Mark
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv The author retains all rights with regard to copyright. The author certifies that written permission from the owner(s) of third-party copyrighted matter included in the thesis, dissertation, paper, or record of study has been obtained. The author further certifies that IRB approval has been obtained for this thesis, or that IRB approval is not necessary for this thesis. Insofar as this thesis, dissertation, paper, or record of study is an educational record as defined in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 USC 1232g), the author has granted consent to disclosure of it to anyone who requests a copy.
description This study explores issue salience among Egyptian Facebook users during the parliamentary elections of December 2011. The researcher examines the potential of agenda-setting effects occurring from the use of social media as an information source. In this study, a field experiment with a pretest/posttest design was conducted on 71 undergraduates of the American University in Cairo. Participants were assigned to treatment groups, some of which were exposed to media concerning the issue of ignorance/illiteracy in Egypt. This exposure was an attempt to increase the salience of the issue for Facebook users. The study also examined the relationship between demographic factors and issue salience in order to rule out confounding variables affecting the results. Few statistically significant results were found yet the presence of issue-related media did raise the issue salience for participants in the treatment groups. Some demographic factors were found to be associated with issue salience, and the conclusions recommend stratifying treatment groups. The data suggest that further investigation into agenda-setting and social media is warranted, and the study identifies several potential areas and avenues for future research.
format Thesis
id oai:fount.aucegypt.edu:etds-1995
institution American University in Cairo (Egypt)
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:35:44.926Z
license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from AUC Knowledge Fountain — bepress
publishDate 2012
publishDateRange 2012
publishDateSort 2012
publisher AUC Knowledge Fountain
publisherStr AUC Knowledge Fountain
record_format dspace
source_str AUC Knowledge Fountain — bepress
spelling oai:fount.aucegypt.edu:etds-1995 Issue salience of Facebook users in Egypt: an agenda-setting experiment Visonà, Mark This study explores issue salience among Egyptian Facebook users during the parliamentary elections of December 2011. The researcher examines the potential of agenda-setting effects occurring from the use of social media as an information source. In this study, a field experiment with a pretest/posttest design was conducted on 71 undergraduates of the American University in Cairo. Participants were assigned to treatment groups, some of which were exposed to media concerning the issue of ignorance/illiteracy in Egypt. This exposure was an attempt to increase the salience of the issue for Facebook users. The study also examined the relationship between demographic factors and issue salience in order to rule out confounding variables affecting the results. Few statistically significant results were found yet the presence of issue-related media did raise the issue salience for participants in the treatment groups. Some demographic factors were found to be associated with issue salience, and the conclusions recommend stratifying treatment groups. The data suggest that further investigation into agenda-setting and social media is warranted, and the study identifies several potential areas and avenues for future research. 2012-06-01T07:00:00Z thesis application/pdf https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/996 https://fount.aucegypt.edu/context/etds/article/1995/viewcontent/VisonaJRMCThesis_ZZ.pdf The author retains all rights with regard to copyright. The author certifies that written permission from the owner(s) of third-party copyrighted matter included in the thesis, dissertation, paper, or record of study has been obtained. The author further certifies that IRB approval has been obtained for this thesis, or that IRB approval is not necessary for this thesis. Insofar as this thesis, dissertation, paper, or record of study is an educational record as defined in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 USC 1232g), the author has granted consent to disclosure of it to anyone who requests a copy. Theses and Dissertations AUC Knowledge Fountain Facebook Egypt
spellingShingle Facebook
Egypt
Visonà, Mark
Issue salience of Facebook users in Egypt: an agenda-setting experiment
title Issue salience of Facebook users in Egypt: an agenda-setting experiment
title_full Issue salience of Facebook users in Egypt: an agenda-setting experiment
title_fullStr Issue salience of Facebook users in Egypt: an agenda-setting experiment
title_full_unstemmed Issue salience of Facebook users in Egypt: an agenda-setting experiment
title_short Issue salience of Facebook users in Egypt: an agenda-setting experiment
title_sort issue salience of facebook users in egypt an agenda setting experiment
topic Facebook
Egypt
url https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/996
https://fount.aucegypt.edu/context/etds/article/1995/viewcontent/VisonaJRMCThesis_ZZ.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT visonamark issuesalienceoffacebookusersinegyptanagendasettingexperiment