Compare methods

	Media Priming Experiment	Agenda-Setting Analysis
Field	Communication	Media Studies
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	1987	1972
Originator	Shanto Iyengar & Donald Kinder	Maxwell McCombs, Donald Shaw
Type	Experiment testing how media attention changes the standards used to evaluate	Empirical method for studying how media coverage affects issue salience and public concern
Seminal source	Iyengar, S., & Kinder, D. R. (1987). News That Matters: Television and American Opinion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN: 9780226388571	McCombs, M. E., & Shaw, D. L. (1972). The agenda-setting function of mass media. Public Opinion Quarterly, 36(2), 176-187.
Aliases	Priming analysis, News priming experiment, Agenda priming study, Medya Hazırlama Deneyi	agenda-setting theory, media agenda analysis, issue salience
Related	4	5
Summary	Media priming is the process by which news attention to some issues, and not others, changes the standards people use to evaluate leaders, policies, or events. Demonstrated experimentally by Iyengar and Kinder in News That Matters, the priming experiment manipulates which issues the news emphasizes and tests whether those issues subsequently weigh more heavily in audiences' judgments — the natural extension of agenda setting from importance to evaluation.	Agenda-Setting Analysis is an empirical method for investigating the influence of media coverage on what issues the public considers important. Developed by Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw (1972), the approach tests a core hypothesis about media effects: media coverage does not tell people what to think, but rather what to think about. By comparing the issues receiving media coverage with the issues the public identifies as important, researchers measure agenda-setting effects—the degree to which media attention predicts public concern. The method demonstrates media's power to structure the hierarchy of issues, even when media may not directly persuade on specific issues.