Media Attributes and Attitude Change: Experiments on the Impact of Second-Level Agenda-Setting on Attitudes towards Syrian Refugees

Abstract

This research examined how news content influences attitudes towards Syrian refugees in Turkey. The study aimed to understand if the way Syrian refugees are attributed in media – that is, media salience about Syrian refugees that comprise their image – would cause an attitude change in the public. More specifically, we intend to determine whether being exposed to positive news coverage about Syrian refugees would cause an attitude change in the public from negative to positive. For the purpose of the study, we have conducted a quasi-experimental research and used a pretest-posttest design to investigate the second-level agenda-setting effects. Two experiments (a pilot and a main experiment) were conducted during the Spring term of 2017 in Turkey. The participants were selected from a large private university in Turkey for the experiments. The t-test results suggest that positive media emphasis on the images of Syrian refugees had a positive impact on public opinion and caused an overall attitude change in the public.