The Agenda Setting role of the Print Media in an Off Election Year: A Case Study of the Sunday Nation and the Sunday Times in 2003

Abstract

Power claims advanced for the press have, in recent years, pursued a new path, drawing on the assertion by political scientist Bernard C. Cohen that the press may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about. Editor Robert Stein injected a new variation in the agenda-setting hypothesis by arguing the power to select gives the media "a new kind of power over us all" because they are able to select which group to make visible to the public and which to condemn to some limbo simply by inattention. Indeed according to Stein, it is this 'power' that has intensified an adversarial relationship between the press and the politicians, who see the media as usurping their prerogative to shape the public agenda.

Empirical studies of press performance in elections have tended to support this position (Maxwell and Shaw (1972); Martin and Chaudhary (1983); Dan Okigbo (1994); Altschull (1995) et al). However while public and some scientific opinion seems inclined to attribute sweeping political power to mass communication, empirical evidence gathered by journalists and behavioral scientists suggests a more circumspect approach. There are few incidences of real political or ideological conversion. The significance of agenda setting in the larger population is yet to be determined. Yet Okigbo (1994) notes: No

reader of African newspapers or magazines will fail to realize that many of the issues for public discussion by the people often originate from the coverage provided by journalists. Even in an off election year, people get the topics for interpersonal discussion from what the media cover.

This study assessed the Agenda-Setting role of the print media in all off election year. The study analyzed a sample of 26 Sunday papers spreading across the whole of last year. Through content analysis the issues raised by writers and readers of Sunday Nation and Sunday Times were identified and quantified. A correlation analysis of the sampled data yielded a correlation coefficient of 0.48. Evidence from the data gathered indicates a correspondence between the political and economic issues raised by the

writers and readers of the two weeklies.

Finally the study noted that the causal role of the print media in Agenda setting couldn't be taken too literally. Other independent variables such as the state of the economy and public content or discontent point to a need for further researches on the agenda setting role of the print media or media in general. Consequently, the debate between the proponents of the "all­ powerful" and those of the "limited" effects of the Media is far from over.