Public Problem Characterization, Policy Solution Generation, and Intra-Agenda Connectivity Academic Article

abstract

• 2016 Policy Studies Organization While policy agenda studies have extensively examined the interplays of various venues, one under-explored area is the internal dynamics within an agenda venue. In this study, we focus on one of the important venuesnews mediaand investigate the inherent connections between how a public problem is characterized and how problem solutions are generated in media agenda setting. Drawing on agenda-setting theories, we develop a typology to theorize the relationships between problem characterization and solution advocacy, and use a news dataset on climate change to empirically assess how issue characterization affects issue solution generation. Our logistic regressions demonstrate that the likelihoods of climate change policy solutions being proposed in the news are significantly influenced by how the media stories characterize the issue along four key attribute dimensions: issue image, scope, linkage, and narrative style. Key implications are discussed in the conclusion.

authors

• Liu, Xinsheng
• Vedlitz, Arnold

published proceedings

• POLICY STUDIES JOURNAL

altmetric score

• 0.5

author list (cited authors)

• Liu, X., Robinson, S., & Vedlitz, A.

citation count

• 13

complete list of authors

• Liu, Xinsheng||Robinson, Scott||Vedlitz, Arnold

publication date

• November 2016

publisher

• Wiley  Publisher

published in

• POLICY STUDIES JOURNAL  Journal

keywords

• Agenda Setting
• Climate Change
• News Media
• Policy Solution
• Problem Definition

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1111/psj.12163

start page

• 396

end page

• 423

volume

• 44

issue

• 4

URL

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/psj.12163