International applications of the agenda-setting Acapulco Typology

Abstract

The Chapel Hill study is well known as both the theoretical and empirical origin of agenda-setting theory. To a considerable degree, however, this study conducted by McCombs and Shaw (1972) during the 1968 presidential election also set the methodological agenda for a significant proportion of the hundred of empirical studies that have followed. Although the Chapel Hill study design was not the the first mass communication research study to use content analysis and survey research in tandem, it was the study that brought this combination of research methods to center stage in investigating cognitive effects. Over time, a number of tactical variations have evolved in research practice for investigating these agenda-setting effects. A four part typology summarizing these perspectives is frequently referred to as the Acapulco typology because McCombs initially presented it in Acapulco, Mexico, at the invitation of International Communication Association president elect Everett Rogers. This chapters explores international applications of the Acapulco typology. The typology is defined by two dimensions. The first considers the focus of attention: a set of issues on the agenda; or a single item on the agenda. The second distinguishes two ways of measuring the salience of items on the agenda: either as aggregate measures describing an entire population; or measures that describe individual responses.