Agenda Setting vs. Reversed Agenda Setting

With the advent of the Internet, Netizens who use the Internet for a specific purpose appeared. Some people simply search for certain information they want through various media channels, while others post their own opinion or discuss a certain issue on their internet homepages or internet communities. Thus, increase in the role of citizens in agenda setting sheds light on a new direction in the traditional agenda-setting research.

Kim and Lee (2006) noted that the agenda-setting research on internet differs from traditional agenda-setting research in that the Internet functions alternative media which is in competition with traditional media, the Internet has enormous capacity for contents, and users’ interactivity has been stressed on the Internet. Lee, Lancendorfer and Lee (2005) argued that “various opinions about public issues are posted on the Internet bulletin boards or the Usenet newsgroup by Netizens, and the opinions then form an agenda in which other Netizens can perceive the salient issue”. The researchers also stated that the Internet plays a role in a medium for forming Internet user’s opinion as well as the public space.
Kim and Lee (2006) studied the pattern of internet mediated agenda-setting by conducting a case study on 10 cases which have a great ripple effect in Korea for 5 years (from 2000 until 2005). From the result, researchers found that a person’s opinion could be disseminated through various online channels and arouse public opinion which influences on news coverage. Their study suggests ‘reversed agenda effects’ that public agenda could set media agenda. Maxwell McCombs (2004) also mentioned "reverse agenda-setting" in his recent textbook as a situation where public concern sets the media agenda.

According to Kim and Lee (2006), agenda-setting and agenda-building through the Internet take the following three steps: 1) Internet-mediated agenda-rippling: an anonymous netizen’s opinion spreads to the important agenda on the Internet through online main rippling channels such as blogs, personal homepages, and internet bulletin boards. 2) agenda diffusion on the Internet: Online news or portal sites report the important agenda on the Internet, which leads to spread the agenda to more online publics. 3) Internet-mediated reversed agenda-setting: traditional media report the online agenda to the public so that the agenda spread to both offline and online publics. However, the researchers said that internet mediated agenda-setting or agenda-building processes not always occur in consecutive order. For example, the agenda which was reported by traditional media has come to the fore again through the online discussion, or the three steps occur at the same time in a short time.