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Listeners' preference and the media's thematic focus on public issues: an exploration of agenda-setting as a two-way process

The mass media have the power to set public agenda. Public issues that receive emphasis by the media are the issues that are likely to receive prominence in public perception. However, it has been argued that there is a link between what the public expect to constitute news and what the media report...

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Published: 2013-10
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LEADER 00000njm a2000000a 4500
001 oai:repository.ui.edu.ng:123456789/3893
042 |a dc 
720 |a Ojebuyi, B. R.  |e author 
260 |c 2013-10 
520 |a The mass media have the power to set public agenda. Public issues that receive emphasis by the media are the issues that are likely to receive prominence in public perception. However, it has been argued that there is a link between what the public expect to constitute news and what the media report as news to set public agenda. This assertion requires further empirical proof, especially in the Nigerian media context. Focusing on radio listeners and the news review programmes of selected radio stations in Oyo State, Nigeria, this study sought to establish the validity or otherwise of the forgoing contention. Premised on agenda-setting and newsworthiness theories, the study combined In-depth Interviews, Content Analysis and Survey as research methods. Findings show that a predominant segment (89.0%) of radio listeners perceived the intensity of media coverage of certain public issues as an indicator that such public issues must be significant: Issues such as politics (33.5%), sports (29.5%), and crises (11.3%) that audience preferred as news were the same issues that the radio stations accorded corresponding degree of emphasis in the news reviews-politics (35.4%). sports (17.0%), and crises (11.9%). Editorial personnel of the radio stations also affirmed that they gave priority to issues that would naturally interest the audience. The basic implication of these findings is that as the media set agenda for the public, the public also set agenda for the media. 
024 8 |a 2141-5277 
024 8 |a ui_art_ojebuyi_listeners'_2013 
024 8 |a Journal of Communication and Media Research 5(2), pp. 1-15 
024 8 |a http://ir.library.ui.edu.ng/handle/123456789/3893 
653 |a Agenda-Setting 
653 |a News Reviews 
653 |a News worthiness 
653 |a Media Context 
653 |a Radio 
245 0 0 |a Listeners' preference and the media's thematic focus on public issues: an exploration of agenda-setting as a two-way process