Queering agenda building: LGBT advocacy organizations and strategic information flow through multiple media platforms
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Cabosky, Joseph. Queering Agenda Building: Lgbt Advocacy Organizations and Strategic Information Flow Through Multiple Media Platforms. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School, 2015. https://doi.org/10.17615/jnet-7647APA
Cabosky, J. (2015). Queering agenda building: LGBT advocacy organizations and strategic information flow through multiple media platforms. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School. https://doi.org/10.17615/jnet-7647Chicago
Cabosky, Joseph. 2015. Queering Agenda Building: Lgbt Advocacy Organizations and Strategic Information Flow Through Multiple Media Platforms. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School. https://doi.org/10.17615/jnet-7647- Last Modified
- March 19, 2019
- Creator
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Cabosky, Joseph
- Affiliation: Hussman School of Journalism and Media, Mass Communication Graduate Program
- Abstract
- Mass communication agenda building literature has examined how story topics and frames develop into media coverage. This dissertation studied two aspects of agenda building that remain under explored. First, while agenda building and agenda setting were developed during days of top-down mass media, today’s media environment can be perceived as, in the words of Andrew Chadwick, a hybrid media system. This system has many interacting players, platforms and opinion leaders, each with access to several media channels and outlets. While scholarship has looked at how much influence older forms of information subsidies, such as press releases, or newer forms, such as Tweets, have on media coverage and corresponding public attention, few studies have looked at how all of these forms of materials and media outlets are interacting with each other. Second, agenda building literature rarely looks at how minority or niche media outlets and audiences discuss a topic. This study compared coverage of an LBGT-themed case study ¬– openly gay athlete Michael Sam’s journey into professional football ¬¬¬– to see how the story was built and shaped across mainstream news media, queer media, LGBT advocacy organizations and social media. This study used a qualitative content analysis of multiple outlets and organizations from each of these media and organizational categories, coupled with in-depth interviews with individuals associated with Michael Sam’s journey, or the LGBT sports movement more broadly. Results showed that previous conceptualizations of unidirectional information flow developed in mass media days are no longer a reality. Many different outlets, organizations and individuals shaped coverage of Michael Sam, each having their own voice at various points in the story. Theorizations of agenda building therefore need to take account of the modern media system’s diverse landscape. Findings also indicated unique dynamics within queer media and LGBT advocacy organizations, demonstrating how scholars need to fully appreciate the variance that can take place across media coverage, advocacy outlets, and audiences. The study concludes with recommendations for future academic and professional work in this area. First, it suggests that the media system is less of a unidirectional wave and more of an interacting and rippling pond. Second, scholars need to study more than just older or newer types of information subsidies to appreciate all that is affecting broader story flow. Findings showed that, to make broader claims about who influences a story’s development, many individuals, outlets and organizations need to be examined holistically. Third, it calls for a better appreciation of non-news media and non-media relations factors that can affect a story or topic. Fourth, future scholars must think critically when applying the term agenda at all, as findings showed that mainstream news coverage often varied not only from queer coverage and audience or organizational discussion, but also other mainstream news coverage. The study ends with critical and reflexive thought on how scholars and professionals may need to better appreciate the dynamics of power that have led to the field’s current understanding of agenda building.
- Date of publication
- August 2015
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- In Copyright
- Advisor
- Parker, Patricia
- Saffer, Adam
- Andrews, Kenneth
- Gibson, Rhonda
- Boynton, Lois A.
- Degree
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Degree granting institution
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School
- Graduation year
- 2015
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- Place of publication
- Chapel Hill, NC
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- There are no restrictions to this item.
- Date uploaded
- August 25, 2015
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