Public “agendamelding” in the United States: assessing the relative influence of different types of online news on partisan agendas from 2015 to 2020

ABSTRACT Using Gallup survey data and online news from 2015 to 2020, this study explored the degree to which audiences “meld” agendas from a wide array of news sources for the five most popular issues in the U.S.: the government and politicians, immigration, the economy, race relations, and healthcare. Overall, audiences of varying ideology had agendas that were congruent. Media agendas also appeared congruent, except on the issue of the economy. Conservative news media had a strong influence on audience issue salience. Horizontal (all partisan) and vertical (nonpartisan) media were in a virtual tie for influence among audiences. Despite an erosion in media trust, conservatives were receptive to issue salience from news media of all types, including liberal media. Liberals did not mirror elite media issue saliences, but were influenced by all other types of media, including conservative media. Moderates were influenced by the entire media landscape, to a somewhat even degree. Four out of the five issues studied here showed varying news media influence with no one media group nor ideology owning the agendas of an issue. The exception observed here was the issue of healthcare, which was influenced exclusively by liberal media for all three ideological groups.