The media's impact on public opinion formation: A network agenda-setting study on immigrants

Recently, the mass migration triggered by a series of tragic global developments has had significant repercussions worldwide, including in Turkey. This demographic transformation has led to a marked increase in media content concerning migrants, thereby elevating the issue of migration to a prominent position in both media and public agendas. In this context, the agenda-setting theory, which examines the influence of media content on public perception and attitudes, has regained scholarly attention. The first-level (object-centered) agenda-setting approach posits that the prominence of issues in the media influences the perceived importance of those issues by the public. This claim has been empirically validated across various regions and contexts. Second-level agenda-setting research has explored how the qualitative attributes of media portrayals shape individual attitudes. The latest advancement in this theoretical framework, network (third-level) agenda-setting, examines how media exposure aids in the formation of cognitive associations—specifically, mental networks—among concepts, individuals, and events within the minds of individuals. This study aims to evaluate the network agenda-setting effect of the media in the context of migration in Turkey. Specifically, the study empirically investigates how media constructs cognitive structures related to migration within the case of Afyonkarahisar province. To identify media agenda networks, a range of sources were included in the sample: national print newspapers (Hürriyet, Sabah, and Sözcü), online news portals (ensonhaber.com, mynet.com.tr, and haberler.com), and local print newspapers (Odak, Kocatepe Gazetesi, and Türkeli). Between March 1 and August 31, 2023, migration-related news content published in these outlets was analyzed through qualitative content analysis. Furthermore, pertinent posts on the social media platform X (Twitter) from the same timeframe were analyzed to further investigate the interplay between media and public agenda formulation. Data regarding public agenda networks were obtained from a cognitive mapping survey conducted in October 2023 with a sample of 750 residents from Afyonkarahisar. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS and UCINET software, while visualizations were generated through NetDraw and Microsoft Excel. The findings indicate the presence of a general negative predisposition toward migrants among the Afyonkarahisar population. Nevertheless, concerning the primary emphasis of the study—the third-level agenda-setting effect—no statistically significant correlations were found between the national print media agenda and the public agenda network, nor between the X (Twitter) agenda and the public agenda network.These results suggest a lack of alignment between national and social media content and the cognitive agenda structures of local publics. In contrast, significant associations were found between the local media and digital media agendas and the public's cognitive agenda networks. These findings underscore the continued relevance and influence of local media outlets and digital platforms in shaping individuals' mental frameworks. Furthermore, behavioral variables such as demographic characteristics and media consumption patterns were found to significantly mediate the internalization and cognitive representation of media content. In conclusion, this study provides an empirical contribution to the agenda-setting literature by testing the validity of the network agenda-setting hypothesis within a localized context, thereby offering both theoretical and methodological insights.