Agenda-Setting and Spanish Cable News
By
Salma I. Ghanem
Journalism Division
Communication Department
University of Texas-Pan American
Edinburg, TX 78539-2999
(210) 381-3583
[log in to unmask]
and
Wayne Wanta
School of Journalism and Communication
1275 University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403-1275
(541) 346-3752
[log in to unmask]
**Ghanem is an assistant professor at the University of Texas-Pan American and
Wanta is an associate professor at the University of Oregon.
**Paper submitted to the Mass Communication & Society Division for consideration
of presentation at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass
Communication annual convention, Baltimore, August 1998.
Agenda-Setting and Spanish Cable News
Abstract
A survey conducted in a highly Hispanic area examined whether exposure to
Spanish-language cable news had an agenda-setting effect. Results show that
level of exposure was associated with agenda-setting effects for Spanish cable
news, but perceived media credibility and media reliance were not related to the
strength of agenda-setting effects. Exposure, credibility and reliance were not
associated with agenda-setting effects for English-language newscasts -- perhaps
because English-speakers had more news options in our survey area.
Agenda-Setting and Spanish Cable News
With approximately 30 million people, the Hispanic population in the United
States is the fifth largest in the world (Avila, 1997). Hispanics represent
approximately 12 percent of the total U.S. population (Turner & Allen, 1997).
Currently, according to Nielsen's Hispanic People Meter, there are 7.51 million
Hispanic households in the U.S. (Avila, 1997).
Since 1980, the Hispanic population has increased by 39 percent, a rate five
times greater than the rate of increase of the general population (Goodson &
Shaver, 1994). The diverse Hispanic population, in fact, will become the
largest minority group in the U.S. by the turn of the century (Knopper, 1996,
Roslow & Nicholls, 1996).
Yet despite this booming growth in population, relatively few mass
communication researchers have examined Hispanics and their media use patterns
-- especially investigations of possible media effects on the Hispanic
population. This study attempts to fill this important void in mass
communication research. Specifically, the present study will explore the
agenda-setting effects of Spanish-language media and possible differences
between agenda-setting effects for Hispanics and non-Hispanics. Through a
telephone survey conducted in a community with a high Hispanic population, we
will examine whether issue coverage in Spanish cable news broadcasts influenced
the perceived importance of issues held by Spanish-speaking individuals -- in
other words, whether Spanish cable news set the issue agenda for
Spanish-speakers.
While mass communication researchers have been slow to investigate the Latino
population, the $178 billion buying power of the U.S. Hispanic market (Kerwin,
1993) has not gone unnoticed by advertisers. Hispanic advertising budgets are
estimated at $640 million, and $1.2 billion are spent annually on all Hispanic
media outlets. Spanish-language television consumes half of the Hispanic
advertising budget with Univision controlling 77 percent of the U.S. Spanish TV
market and Telemundo 23 percent (Avila, 1997). According to Mendosa (1996),
the advertising revenues for Univision grew from $316.5 million to $345.2
million and Telemundo's advertising revenues increased by 21% between 1995 and
1996.
About 19 million American Hispanics tune into Spanish-language media on a daily
basis (Roslow & Nicholls, 1996). Some researchers like to point out that
Spanish-language media serve as a niche for recent immigrants and do not reach
all Hispanics because 22 percent of Hispanics do not speak any Spanish (Avila,
1997). According to Frase-Blunt (1991), the audience for Spanish-language
television is predominantly younger immigrants who prefer Spanish to English.
In some specific areas, Spanish-language media are dominant. In Miami, for
instance, Univision has surpassed ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox (Avila, 1997). A
Spanish-language radio station (KVLE) reached the number one spot in Los
Angeles, and another Spanish station (WSKQ) went up to number two in New York
(Knopper, 1996).
Given the increasing importance of Spanish media, an examination of the
processing of Spanish news media content is timely and warranted. The main
research question examined here, then, is: Do Spanish news broadcasts perform
the same agenda-setting function that has been found consistently in studies of
the U.S. English-speaking networks?
Hispanics and the media
Several researchers have examined Hispanics and the media through content
analyses. Differences in news coverage, for example, were observed by Turner
and Allen (1997) in their comparison of the daily Latino and mainstream
newspapers in Los Angeles. They examined the coverage for three days following
the 1996 presidential election and found that the Los Angeles Times took a
global perspective while La Opinion concentrated on the election only as it
related to challenges facing the president. La Opinion stressed the size of the
Latino vote more than the Los Angeles Times.
In terms of media behavior, Dunn (1975) conducted a study to determine if
clusters of relevant subgroups of social characteristics, media habits, and
preferences might be identified within the Mexican-American community. He found
differences between traditional and nontraditional clusters and between
housewives and out-of-home workers.
Lewels (1981), on the other hand, examined the differences in attitudes toward
the media between Mexican-Americans with no media experience, those with some
exposure and those who are employed as media professionals and found some
distinct differences between the groups. The alienated minority seems to harbor
the deepest resentment and antipathy toward the media. He also found a
deep-seated distrust of the media and a suspicion that minority interests are
not a prime concern of the media.
Several other examinations of differences between racial groups in mass
communication research have produced a mixed bag of results. The question of
potential differences in mass media consumption, for instance, is not clear cut.
While Fielder and Tipton (1986) found that minority populations tend to use
newspapers less than whites, Cranberg and Rodriguez (1994) note that the
percentages of adult minority readership mirror the overall U.S. population.
Cranberg and Rodriguez (1994) argue that little difference exists in the
newspaper readership between African-Americans and whites. They compared the
distribution of adult population by race (white, 85.48%, African-American,
11.36%) and the distribution of newspaper readers by race (white 86.35%,
African-American 11.25%) and found little difference. While percentages on
Latino readership differed, the authors credited that difference to language
barriers.
Language provides no such barrier in the present study. In fact, because of
the Spanish cable network, Spanish-speaking individuals potentially could be
highly influenced by this network's news coverage for a number of reasons.
First, since this network provides information in Spanish, individuals with
Spanish as their first language may attend to the Univision messages more
closely. Attention has been found to correlate highly with mass media effects.
Semetko, Brzinski, Weaver and Willnat (1992), for example, found that attention
to international news more strongly influenced opinions about foreign countries
than did simple exposure. Similarly, Drew and Weaver (1990), Chaffee and
Schleuder (1986) and McLeod and McDonald (1985) all found that attention to news
more strongly predicted opinion formation than mere exposure to news.
Second, Spanish-speakers may use the Spanish network news to learn what is
happening in the world around them. With only one Spanish channel from which to
learn about important issues, Spanish-speakers have fewer options for their news
than English-speakers, who can chose from the newscasts of the three national
networks, as well as CNN, CNN Headline News, Fox News and other cable news
channels. Thus, English-speakers may receive conflicting salience cues for the
various media in our survey area.
Finally, Spanish-speakers may use the Spanish cable news programs to
acculturate themselves to the U.S. As Kim (1979) notes, individuals identified
in some fashion as minorities tend to become acquainted with and adopt "the
norms and values of a salient reference group." In this case, Hispanics may use
the Spanish cable newscasts as a tool to learn the relative importance of issues
of the general U.S. population. Thus, strong agenda-setting effects may be
found among viewers of these newscasts.
Agenda-setting
Since the seminal study by McCombs and Shaw (1972), the vast majority of
agenda-setting studies have found support for the notion that members of the
public learn the relative importance of issues from the amount of coverage these
issues receive in the mass media. Recent studies have made several refinements
to the original agenda-setting hypothesis.
Early studies used aggregated data, employing the issue, rather than the
individual respondent, as the unit of analysis (for example, McCombs and Shaw,
1972; Funkhouser, 1973). While these studies were able to examine several issue
variables -- for instance, the obtrusiveness of issues (Zucker, 1978) --
investigations of factors within individuals that could play a role in the
agenda-setting process were difficult.
A consistent problem with many previous agenda-setting studies has been how to
examine individuals as the unit of measurement. Indeed, individuals should be
the focus of more research in agenda-setting. It is the individual who consumes
and processes issue information contained in the news media. And it is the
individual who ultimately displays the agenda-setting effect. While
agenda-setting may be a societal effect, the process of agenda-setting takes
place within individuals.
Hill (1985) provided a crucial first step in research in this area. Hill
uncovered only one demographic variable that appeared to influence the media
agenda-setting effect. He found that if respondents had some college education,
they were more susceptible to agenda-setting effects than individuals with lower
levels of education. According to Hill's study, then, education played a role
in media agenda-setting.
It should be noted, however, that Hill's methodology had a significant
shortcoming. Hill used a five-point Likert-type scale to examine individuals'
issue agendas. The responses to questions dealing with the perceived importance
of issues were used to rank the issues. Thus, there were several "ties" among
the issue ranks for each respondent. Since computations of Spearman rank-order
correlations are hampered by tied categories, the results could have been less
rigorous as they may have been with a different methodology.
Recently, Wanta (1997) employed an "agenda-setting susceptibility" score to
examine individual variables. This measure, essentially an index of issue
concern responses weighted by media coverage, is used in the present study.
Utilizing this agenda-setting effects index, Wanta (1997) employed a path
analysis model of agenda-setting effects. According to his results, individuals
first form opinions regarding the perceived credibility of the mass media.
Based on these perceptions, individuals form a level of reliance on the mass
media for information. Individuals then expose themselves to media content
based on this level of reliance. Finally, exposure to the media leads to
agenda-setting effects. Thus, the results showed agenda-setting effects were
strongest for active processors of media messages.
Miller and Wanta (1996) also used this agenda-setting susceptibility measure to
examine agenda-setting differences between different racial groups -- one of the
first studies to investigate race as a variable in media effects research.
Their survey found whites and non-whites were extremely similar in the two sites
of their study. The lone exception was that minorities in a city with a high
minority population (Tampa, Florida) demonstrated concern with more issues than
either whites in the same city or minorities and whites in a city with a low
minority population (Eugene, Oregon). They speculate that this difference may
have been due to the availability of minority-based newspapers in the Tampa
area.
Researchers have found several psychological factors may affect the magnitude
of agenda-setting effects. Two such variables -- media credibility and media
reliance -- seem especially pertinent to an examination of Hispanics and their
uses of the news media.
Meyer (1989) developed a media credibility index consisting of two factors.
From his factor analysis, Meyer found two useful scales: one dealing with the
believability of the news media, the other with community affiliation.
Believability is based on the notion that news media need to offer accurate and
unbiased information. Community affiliation is based on newspaper editors'
concerns that media need to maintain harmony and a leadership status in a
community. Both factors are used in the present study. Indeed, if individuals
view the news media in a positive way on these two factors, they likely will
display strong agenda-setting effects. Agenda-setting influences, in other
words, should be stronger if the receiver of a media message views the sender of
the message in a highly positive light. Wanta and Hu (1994) found some support
for this relationship.
Reliance on the media for information likewise should influence the
agenda-setting power of the news media. DeFleur and Ball-Rokeach note that
individuals develop dependencies on the mass media because people tend to be
goal oriented and often require resources controlled by the media to achieve
their goals. If individuals have a goal of gaining information on the important
issues of the day, they will become highly dependent on the media, since the
media control access to a variety of information. High reliance on the media,
then, should lead to powerful media influences. Thus, if individuals become
highly reliant on the news media for information, they will display strong
agenda-setting effects. Again, Wanta and Hu (1994) found support for this
relationship.
Hypotheses
Two hypotheses will be tested here examining the relationship between exposure
to news media and agenda-setting effects:
H1: The more individuals are exposed to Spanish cable news broadcasts, the more
they will perceive issues covered on the newscasts to be highly important.
H2: The more individuals are exposed to U.S. news broadcasts, the more they
will perceive issues covered on the newscasts to be highly important.
These two hypotheses are based on previous research showing that the more
individuals are exposed to mass media news coverage, the more they will believe
the issues covered by the media are important -- the basic logic behind the
agenda-setting hypothesis. Furthermore, if minorities were influenced by the
minority press in Tampa, as Miller and Wanta (1996) argue, perhaps a similar
case will be found in the present study. In other words, Spanish-speakers may
learn the relative importance of issues from their exposure to Spanish cable
news.
And if exposure is a key variable influencing the magnitude of agenda-setting
effects (Wanta, 1997), high levels of exposure to Spanish cable news should lead
to strong agenda-setting effects for Spanish-speakers. Similarly, high levels
of exposure to U.S. newscasts should lead to strong agenda-setting effects for
English-speakers.
In addition to testing for the above hypotheses, we will also examine the
potential role of two other factors: the perceived credibility of the news media
and the level of media reliance within individuals. Both have been found to
play important roles in the agenda-setting process (Wanta and Hu, 1994). Thus,
two additional hypotheses will be tested:
H3: The more credible that individuals view the news media to be, the stronger
the agenda-setting effects they will display.
H4: The higher the level of reliance that individuals feel toward the news
media, the stronger the agenda-setting effects they will display.
If individuals view the news media in a positive way and form a reliance on the
media for information, they likely will expose themselves often to media
messages and thus become highly susceptible to agenda-setting influences.
Method
A telephone survey was conducted spring of 1997 in the border city of McAllen,
Texas. McAllen's population is approximately 110,000 of which 91 percent is
Hispanic. The median household income is $30,544 and the median age is 26.7
(McAllen, 1997). The response rate for working numbers was approximately 72
percent. The telephone numbers were selected by random digit dialing and
yielded 297 completed questionnaires.
Each questionnaire took approximately 10 minutes to complete and included
mostly closed-ended questions. Respondents were asked what they thought was the
number one problem facing the country and were asked to determine their level of
concern on 15 issues (extremely concerned, very concerned, somewhat concerned, a
little concerned or not concerned at all). This series of questions dealing
with issue concerns formed the basis for the present study. The survey also
included sections on media habits, media credibility, perceptions of advertising
and demographics.
To determine the relative strength of agenda-setting effects displayed by
respondents, a methodology was utilized that was nearly identical to that used
previously by Miller and Wanta (1996) and Wanta (1997).
First, the national newscasts in Spanish and English which aired in the McAllen
area for two weeks prior to conducting the survey were videotaped and coded for
issue rankings. According to Eaton (1989) and Winter and Eyal (1981), the
optimum time to test for agenda setting effects is the two weeks immediately
preceding the test of public opinion. Thus, for the two weeks before the survey
period, the news reports of Univision, ABC and CBS were content analyzed for
issue coverage. Since the Univision news programs are one hour long, and since
NBC does not air in the McAllen market, the method provided a relatively equal
amount of content for the Spanish and English news programs that would be
available to McAllen residents.
Two agenda-setting effects scores were then computed, one for the Spanish
network news broadcasts and one for the English network news broadcasts, both
based on responses to the level of concern respondents reported for the 15
issues included in our study. First, responses to three of these issue concern
questions were weighted based on the number of stories the issues received on
either the Spanish or English news programs. For example, 28% of the stories on
Univision dealt with International Problems, 19% dealt with Drugs, and 13% dealt
with Immigration. These were the three issues that topped the Spanish news
agenda. Responses to these issues were weighted by .28, .19, and .13, then
summed.
Next, responses to three issues that received no media coverage were used to
guard against potential problems of individuals responding that they were
concerned with all issues. Indeed, if respondents were highly concerned with
all issues, even those that received little media attention, this would not show
media influence but a psychological factor inherent in the individual. Thus,
responses for the issues Gangs, Teen Pregnancy and Job Security were weighted by
the average of the three highest coverage issues, then subtracted from the total
for the highly covered issues. This final score, then, gave an indication of
the magnitude of the Spanish network news' agenda-setting influence that an
individual displayed.
Similarly, for the English news agenda, responses to International Problems
were weighted by .22, Crime by .21 and Economy by .11. These were the top three
issues on the U.S. network news agenda. These scores were then summed, and the
score for the non-covered issues used in the Spanish news agenda-setting effects
score was subtracted from the total. This final score formed the English news
agenda-setting effects score.
The two agenda-setting scores were relatively similar across the respondents
sampled here. The English news agenda-setting effects scores were slighly
larger than the Spanish effects scores (mean = .803, standard deviation = .617
for the English news; mean = .512, standard deviation = .557 for the Spanish
news).
These two agenda-setting effects scores were then used as dependent variables
in a series of regression analyses. Used as independent variables were exposure
to Spanish cable news or exposure to U.S. network news; the two media
credibility measures involving believability and community affiliation; and
media reliance.
Two exposure questions asked respondents how many days in a typical week they
watched the Spanish cable news and the U.S. network news. The believability
measure asked respondents if they strongly agreed, agreed, were neutral,
disagreed or strongly disagreed with the following statements:
News organizations like newspapers and television news try to manipulate public
opinion, news organizations often fail to get all of the facts straight, news
organizations don't deal fairly with all sides of a political or social issue,
news organizations do a poor job of separating facts from opinions. The
community affiliation measure asked respondents if they strongly agreed to
strongly disagreed with the following: News organizations are concerned with the
community's well-being, news organizations watch out for your interests, and
news organizations are concerned mainly about the public welfare. These two
credibility measures are a subset of the indexes developed by Meyer (1989).
Finally, reliance was measure by the respondents' level of agreement with the
following: I rely on TV news and special reports for information about politics
and important issues.
Results
In the survey, 58 percent of the respondents reported they were Hispanic, 13
percent reported they were partially Hispanic and 29 percent reported they were
not Hispanic. The mean income of respondents was between $30,000 and $50,000,
and the mean age of respondents was 41, understandably higher than the average
age of the McAllen general population, given the fact that we interviewed only
individuals who were older than 18 years of age.
As would be expected, Hispanic individuals were more likely to display
agenda-setting effects from Spanish cable news (mean = .5495) than non-Hispanics
(mean = .4308). Similarly, non-Hispanics displayed stronger agenda-setting
effects from the English-language network news (mean = .8031) than Hispanics
(mean = .7935)
Table 1 shows Pearson correlations for the variables in our study. As the
table details, exposure to Spanish cable news was positively associated with the
Spanish agenda-setting effects score (r=.1259, p < .05). However, exposure to
the English-language network news was not related to the English agenda-setting
effects score (r=.0518, p > .05). In other words, exposure to the news was
associated with agenda-setting effects only for the Spanish cable news. The
more individuals watched the Spanish cable news, the stronger the agenda-setting
effects they displayed.
The results of the regression analyses are listed in Table 2 and 3. According
to Table 2, only exposure to Spanish cable news was associated with the
agenda-setting effects score. The two credibility measures -- believability and
community affiliation -- narrowly fell short of statistical significance. Media
reliance also was not associated with media effects for the Spanish cable news.
According to Table 3, none of the independent variables was associated with the
agenda-setting effects score for the U.S. English-language newscasts.
Discussion
The purpose of the present study was to examine whether exposure to the Spanish
cable news had an agenda-setting influence on a highly Hispanic population. The
results of our survey conducted in the Texas border town of McAllen support the
agenda-setting hypothesis for the Spanish cable newscasts. The level of
agenda-setting effects shown by respondents in McAllen was associated with their
level of exposure to the Spanish-language newscasts, supporting our first
hypothesis.
On the other hand, however, we did not find support for an agenda-setting
influence of the U.S. national network newscasts. Individuals' exposure levels
to English-language network news were not associated with the magnitude of
effects they displayed, as our second hypothesis predicted. The lack of an
agenda-setting effect here could be explained by a number of factors.
First, the lack of agenda-setting influence could be due to the fact that
English-speakers have more news options than Spanish-speakers. Beyond ABC and
CBS, the two media included in our content analysis, McAllen residents had
several other news sources available to them: CNN, CNN Network news and Fox
News, as well as several English-language newspapers. Thus, ABC and CBS, the
sources for the media agenda used here, had competition from several other
English-language media for individuals' attention. The issues covered by these
two networks were in fact only a small portion of the overall issue agenda that
English-speakers in McAllen potentially could be exposed to through the
available English-language media in the area.
Univision, on the other hand, has a near monopoly for Spanish-speakers in
McAllen. There were no other cable channels or local television stations
providing news in Spanish in the area. In addition, relatively few other
Spanish-language sources were available, all from across the border in Mexico.
Moreover, reported levels of exposure to other Spanish media, beyond exposure
to Univision, were extremely low. While Hispanic respondents showed a mean
score of 2.57 on the question dealing with the number of days in a typical week
they watched Spanish cable news, the mean score dropped to .93 -- or less than
once a week on average -- for days in a typical week in which they read a
Spanish newspaper. This is in sharp contrast to the media usage patterns for
Non-Hispanics in McAllen. Non-Hispanics reported watching English-language
network newscasts an average of 4.68 times a week, but also reported reading
English-language newspapers 5.54 times a week and watching English-language
local news programs 5.32 times a week. In other words, Non-Hispanics were more
likely to read English-language newspapers and watch local news programs than
they were to watch the national network news. These other media could have
given McAllen residents messages about the relative importance of issues that
conflicted with the national network issue agenda. Clearly, English-speakers in
McAllen were using a wide variety of news media while Spanish-speakers, because
of limited news options, demonstrated a much more narrow pattern of news usage,
focusing almost entirely on Spanish cable news.
Second, the results here may have been due to differences in the information
processing of individuals. Spanish-speakers may have been more attentive when
watching the Spanish cable newscasts than English-speakers were when watching
the national network news. With the news broadcast in a more accessible
language, Spanish-speakers may have been more active in their processing of
information and thus may have been more influenced by its content. They may
have watched the Spanish newscasts with a strong intention of learning about
important issues, while English-speakers may not have been as purposive in their
viewing of national network newscasts.
The Spanish cable newscasts, meanwhile, also may have been providing its
Spanish-speaking viewers with coverage of issues the cable network felt its
viewers were concerned with -- a reverse agenda-setting process. In other
words, the Spanish network may have covered issues it thought its viewers wanted
to see. The data here provide some support for this notion. The third highest
issue on the Spanish cable news agenda was immigration, likely an important
issue for Spanish-speakers in the U.S. This issue received minimal coverage on
the U.S. English-speaking networks. Immigration clearly was a more important
issue for the audiences of the Spanish cable news, and thus received a great
deal more coverage here than on the national network news.
One other difference should be noted dealing with issue coverage of the Spanish
and English language newscasts. The national networks provided a significantly
higher number of stories dealing with crime than did the Spanish cable news.
Crime, however, was an important issue on the Spanish news agenda as well --
ranking fifth.
Finally, the differences found here may be due to intra-media agenda-setting.
It is possible that the Spanish cable network had its agenda set by U.S.
networks. If this were the case, the two-week time-lag utilized in our
methodology may have been sensitive enough for the Spanish newscasts but not
sensitive enough for the national networks. If issue coverage begins with the
U.S. networks and filters its way to the Spanish cable news, perhaps a longer
time-lag would have produced a different issue agenda for the U.S. networks, and
thus different agenda-setting effects results. Future research, then, might
examine the relationship between coverage of U.S. and Spanish newscasts.
The lack of influence dealing with the credibility and reliance measures used
here is puzzling. Possibly, these variables do not directly impact the
magnitude of agenda-setting effects, but instead have an indirect influence.
Indeed, Wanta and Hu (1994) found that credibility is associated with reliance,
reliance is associated with exposure, and exposure is associated with
agenda-setting effects. Thus, these variables interact with each other before
eventually having an indirect influence on agenda-setting effects. A similar
process could be occurring here.
The data here again offer some support for this explanation. Statistically
significant correlations were found for the community affiliation index and
several other variables, including our reliance measure (r=.3724, p<.001),
exposure to network news (r=.1246, p=.035) and exposure to Spanish cable news
(r=.1271, p=.032). Thus, these variables may be part of a broad agenda-setting
process.
Another plausible explanation is that our questions dealing with reliance and
credibility were not medium specific. Our reliance question, for example, asked
respondents about their reliance on "TV news and special reports" in general.
Perhaps if the question asked specifically about reliance on Spanish cable news,
we may have found a stronger link between reliance, agenda-setting effects
and/or Spanish cable news exposure. The same could be the case with the
believability and community affiliation measures, both of which dealt with "news
organizations" in general.
Overall, the findings here suggest that the respondents in our study did indeed
learn the relative importance of issues from the coverage these issues received
on the Spanish cable news. The agenda-setting function of the Spanish-language
news media, then, was at work in the present study.
Perhaps, as was mentioned earlier, Spanish-speakers were attempting to become
more enculturated into U.S. by learning about the issues of importance as
covered on Spanish cable news. Or perhaps, Spanish-speakers were merely
attempting to be entertained by a medium that catered to their needs through its
use of the Spanish language. Thus, the agenda-setting effects found here may
have been an inadvertent by-product of Spanish-speakers' need for gratifications
that could be met only by the Spanish-language network. Regardless, the
motivation behind the uses of the Spanish cable news appears to be another area
that deserves future attention.
The present study demonstrates the potential fruitfulness of future studies of
Hispanics and their media usage patterns. As the Hispanic population continues
to grow, investigations of this crucial segment of our society will grow in
importance as well.
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Table 1. Correlations comparing media exposure and agenda-setting effects
scores.
Spanish news U.S. Network
Agenda-Setting Agenda-Setting
Effect Effect
Spanish .1259 .0462
News Exposure p=.033 p=.436
U.S. Network .0324 .0518
News Exposure p=.585 p=.383
Media .0866 .0403
Believability p=.144 p=.497
Perceived .0786 .0184
Community p=.188 p=.757
Affiliation
TV News -.0285 .0455
Reliance p=.632 p=.444
Table 2. Regression results for media variables and agenda-setting effects score
for Spanish cable news.
Variable Beta Standard. T- Sign.
Beta Value
News Exposure .135 .140 2.360 .02
Media Believability .029 .100 1.681 .09
Perceived Community .041 .114 1.782 .08
Affiliation
TV Reliance -.006 -006 -0.101 .92
Multiple R: .188; R-Square: .035; Adjusted R-Square: .022.
Table 3. Regression results for media variables and agenda-setting effects score
for U.S. network news.
Variable Beta Standard. T- Sign.
Beta Value
News Exposure .007 .043 0.720 .47
Media Believability .004 .040 0.676 .50
Perceived Community .005 .040 0.613 .54
Affiliation
TV Reliance .018 .055 0.854 .39
Multiple R: .084; R-Square: .007; Adjusted R-Square: .007.
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