Coverage of an issue increases the weight audiences give that issue when evaluating leaders, changing the standard rather than the opinion.
Iyengar and Kinder's experiments in 1987 varied which issues appeared in edited news broadcasts and found that presidential approval shifted toward performance on whichever issue had been covered. Nobody's view of the president changed; the criterion by which he was being judged did.
In practice
- A government whose coverage turns to health is assessed on health, having been assessed on the economy a month earlier.
- A supplier reviewed after a delivery failure is judged on reliability, and the same supplier reviewed after a price rise is judged on cost.
- Standing
- Distinct from social priming, which concerns incidental cues and has largely failed to replicate. The media version rests on a different and stronger evidence base.
- Subject
- Communication & Media
- Essay
- What happens to a message after it is sent