Agenda Melding

Agenda melding can be defined as the process by which audience members seek out and blend media agendas from various communication sources to fit their individual preferences and cognitions. Where the media can set the public agenda by influencing the salience of key issues, along with details or attributes about those issues, agenda melding argues that the already established values and attitudes of audience members play a role in how those issues and attributes are sought out and mixed—or melded—into a coherent individual picture of events. Agenda setting focuses on the power of media to set agendas; agenda melding concentrates on the ability of audience members to select among media, issues, and elements of [Page 12]messages. The latter is important because the study of audience ...