Download full text
(627.2Kb)
Citation Suggestion
Please use the following Persistent Identifier (PID) to cite this document:
https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-78944-8
Exports for your reference manager
Measuring the Volatility of the Political agenda in Public Opinion and News Media
[journal article]
Abstract Recent election surprises, regime changes, and political shocks indicate that political agendas have become more fast-moving and volatile. The ability to measure the complex dynamics of agenda change and capture the nature and extent of volatility in political systems is therefore more crucial than ... view more
Recent election surprises, regime changes, and political shocks indicate that political agendas have become more fast-moving and volatile. The ability to measure the complex dynamics of agenda change and capture the nature and extent of volatility in political systems is therefore more crucial than ever before. This study proposes a definition and operationalization of volatility that combines insights from political science, communications, information theory, and computational techniques. The proposed measures of fractionalization and agenda change encompass the shifting salience of issues in the agenda as a whole and allow the study of agendas across different domains. We evaluate these metrics and compare them to other measures such as issue-level survival rates and the Pedersen Index, which uses public-opinion poll data to measure public agendas, as well as traditional media content to measure media agendas in the UK and Germany. We show how these measures complement existing approaches and could be employed in future agenda-setting research.... view less
Keywords
political agenda; time series; public opinion; news; agenda setting function; Great Britain; Federal Republic of Germany; measurement
Classification
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
Methods and Techniques of Data Collection and Data Analysis, Statistical Methods, Computer Methods
Free Keywords
GLES
Document language
English
Publication Year
2021
Page/Pages
p. 493-516
Journal
Public Opinion Quarterly, 85 (2021) 2
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfab032
ISSN
1537-5331
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed