the canadian agenda - humanities.mcmaster.casevigny/decker_4n03_presen… · the canadian agenda...

THE CANADIAN AGENDAMedia, Public, and Policy Agendas

Jessica Croke

crokejc@mcmaster.ca

@J_C_Croke

Brian Decker

deckerbr@mcmaster.ca

@decker_brian

Thesis

Measuring Canadian media, public and policy agendas are difficult because there is a lot of literature to go through, and that data cannot often relate to agenda setting directly.

Media Agenda

Is there a pan-Canadian media agenda?

What kind of media?

How do we measure it?

Media Agenda

Is there a Pan-Canadian media agenda?

What issues appear most?

Role of concentrated ownership

Individual paper differences

What about content?

Soroka, Stuart N.. Agenda-Setting Dynamics in Canada.

Vancouver, BC, CAN: UBC Press, 2002. p 38.

http://site.ebrary.com/lib/oculmcmaster/Doc?id=10087598&ppg=48

Copyright © 2002. UBC Press. All rights reserved.

Agenda-Setting Dynamics in Canada http://site.ebrary.com.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/lib/oculmcmaste...

1 of 2 08/11/10 1:39 PM

Pg 38

Headlines

Common/most salient: tax, environment, inflation, debt/deficit and unemployment in Toronto Star between Jan 1 1990 and Dec 31 1995

4059 search results for “taxes”

410 search results for “environment”

455 search results for “inflation”

865 “debt” and 940 “deficit” 3 with “debt/deficit”

124 “unemployment”

Headlines

In comparison: taxes, environment, inflation, debt/deficit, and unemployment (In the US) in the same time period of the NY Times

715 “taxes”

287 “environment”

397 “inflation”

749 “debt” 526 “deficit”

99 “unemployment”

Public Agenda

“Most important problem” (MIP) question

What is this and why is this important?

Issue Salience

National

Provincial

Similarities and differences

The Issues

Debt/deficit

Environment

Inflation

National Unity

Unemployment

Soroka, Stuart N.. Agenda-Setting Dynamics in Canada.

Vancouver, BC, CAN: UBC Press, 2002. p 49.

http://site.ebrary.com/lib/oculmcmaster/Doc?id=10087598&ppg=59

Copyright © 2002. UBC Press. All rights reserved.

Agenda-Setting Dynamics in Canada http://site.ebrary.com.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/lib/oculmcmaste...

1 of 2 08/11/10 1:45 PM

Pg 49

Studies

Longitudinal

Cross-section

Findings

Soroka, Stuart N.. Agenda-Setting Dynamics in Canada.

Vancouver, BC, CAN: UBC Press, 2002. p 51.

http://site.ebrary.com/lib/oculmcmaster/Doc?id=10087598&ppg=61

Copyright © 2002. UBC Press. All rights reserved.

Agenda-Setting Dynamics in Canada http://site.ebrary.com.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/lib/oculmcmaste...

1 of 2 08/11/10 1:48 PM

Pg 51

Soroka, Stuart N.. Agenda-Setting Dynamics in Canada.

Vancouver, BC, CAN: UBC Press, 2002. p 52.

http://site.ebrary.com/lib/oculmcmaster/Doc?id=10087598&ppg=62

Copyright © 2002. UBC Press. All rights reserved.

Agenda-Setting Dynamics in Canada http://site.ebrary.com.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/lib/oculmcmaste...

1 of 2 08/11/10 1:49 PM

Pg 52

Policy Agenda

What is the policy agenda of the government?

Can we quantify it?

Policy Agenda

Five Measures

Government spending

Committee activities

Legislative initiatives

Speech content

Question Period discussion

Policy Agenda

Question Period: the only way?

Why?

Problems with other policy measures

Attention-based

Relationship with other agendas

Pg 65

Soroka, Stuart N.. Agenda-Setting Dynamics in Canada.

Vancouver, BC, CAN: UBC Press, 2002. p 65.

http://site.ebrary.com/lib/oculmcmaster/Doc?id=10087598&ppg=75

Copyright © 2002. UBC Press. All rights reserved.

Agenda-Setting Dynamics in Canada http://site.ebrary.com.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/lib/oculmcmaste...

1 of 2 08/11/10 1:57 PM

Soroka, Stuart N.. Agenda-Setting Dynamics in Canada.

Vancouver, BC, CAN: UBC Press, 2002. p 70.

http://site.ebrary.com/lib/oculmcmaster/Doc?id=10087598&ppg=80

Copyright © 2002. UBC Press. All rights reserved.

May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

Agenda-Setting Dynamics in Canada http://site.ebrary.com.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/lib/oculmcmaste...

1 of 1 08/11/10 2:01 PM

Pg 70

Soroka, Stuart N.. Agenda-Setting Dynamics in Canada.

Vancouver, BC, CAN: UBC Press, 2002. p 58.

http://site.ebrary.com/lib/oculmcmaster/Doc?id=10087598&ppg=68

Copyright © 2002. UBC Press. All rights reserved.

Agenda-Setting Dynamics in Canada http://site.ebrary.com.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/lib/oculmcmaste...

1 of 2 08/11/10 1:52 PM

Pg 58

US Comparisons

Media Agenda

Comparison of US papers

Known media agenda

Similar issues

Soroka, Stuart N.. Agenda-Setting Dynamics in Canada.

Vancouver, BC, CAN: UBC Press, 2002. p 38.

http://site.ebrary.com/lib/oculmcmaster/Doc?id=10087598&ppg=48

Copyright © 2002. UBC Press. All rights reserved.

Agenda-Setting Dynamics in Canada http://site.ebrary.com.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/lib/oculmcmaste...

1 of 2 08/11/10 1:39 PM

Pg 38

US Comparisons

Public Agenda

MIP similarities

Differences in data availability

US Comparisons

Policy Agenda

Mostly US examples

US system of government vs Canadian system of government

Where does the data come from?

Conclusion

Measuring Canadian media, public and policy agendas are difficult because there is a lot of literature to go through, and that data cannot often relate to agenda setting directly.

The main idea is that there are loosely measurable ways to determine an agenda in the media, public and policy of the government, in Canada

Discussion

Subject salience instead of content: Is this a valid measure of agendas?

American vs. Canadian policy agenda?

Do you think there is a detectable agenda in Canada?