International Agenda-Building and Agenda-Setting 1
International Agenda-Building and Agenda-Setting: Exploring the Influence of Public
Relations Counsel on News Media and Public Perceptions of Foreign Nations
Introduction
In its traditional conceptualization, agenda-setting research has focused on the transfer of
issue salience from one agenda to another. However, more contemporary scholarship has
suggested that the agenda-setting metaphor could not only be applied to public issues, but also to
political candidates, products, corporate images, and other “objects” in the news (McCombs &
Ghanem, 2001; McCombs & Reynolds, 2002). Of particular importance to international public
relations scholars are the images of foreign nations as objects. Indeed, the influence of such
images in the United States is critical given the emphasis on terrorism in political discourse since
the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
A particularly vexing question often posed in analyses of foreign countries is how is the
media agenda developed with respect to such news content (Wu, 2003)? In addressing this
question, the concept of agenda-building is quite useful, especially for tracing how public
relations efforts (among other influences) increase the salience of certain topics over others in
news media content (Ohl, Pincus, Rimmer, & Harrison, 1995). Though past studies have shown
that countries receiving professional public relations counsel are successful in improving their
images in U.S. news coverage (e.g., Albritton & Manheim, 1983; Manheim & Albritton, 1984;
Zhang & Cameron, 2003), they have been limited to content analysis and have not explored
linkages with public opinion. Such relationships are vital though for evaluating the effectiveness
of public relations counsel on impacting public perceptions of foreign nations—a likely goal of
such activities. Recent inquiries have revealed that news coverage of foreign nations can have
strong agenda-setting effects on public opinion (Wanta, Golan, & Lee, 2004), but the role of
Convention